me *~ « | a i f ¢ afl a2 |, LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY PRINCETON, N. J. PURCHASED BY THE HAMILL MISSIONARY FUND. BV 2065, C 927 | : harine Scherer, c LOT | Digitized by the Internet Archive In 2023 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library https://archive.org/details/missionarymethod0Ocron MISSIONARY METHODS FOR CHURCH AND HOME Missionary Methods for Church and Home PRINCIPLES AND PROGRAMS TESTED IN PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE By me KATHARINE SCHERER CRONK Edited by E. C.XCRONK, D.D. Introduction by DELAVAN L, PIERSON Editor, “Missionary Review of the World’’ New Yorn CuHicaGco Vleming H. Revell Company LonDON AND EDINBURGH Copyright, mcmxxvi, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 851 Cass Street London: 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh: 99 George Street Dedicated EDT: Otylia S. Braun INTRODUCTION NE who would become versed in military tac- tics studies a manual of arms in order that he may take advantage of the lessons learned from the experience of other soldiers. A student of chemistry or physics can best gain a knowledge of these sciences through textbooks, setting forth the results of practical experiments. A housewife does not become expert by mere theory and guesswork, but learns how to provide an attractive, wholesome menu by a study of dietetics. So one who would be a good teacher or parent, a successful pastor or leader in the missionary enter- prise, needs a tested missionary “manual of arms,” a record of successful experiments in making programs, a book that reveals some secrets of making appetizing and stimulating missionary addresses. We know of no leader who has supplied such prac- tical helps so enrichingly as Mrs. E. C. Cronk—of loved and honoured memory. Her brilliant mind and wide experience; her rare good judgment in selecting material, and her extensive contacts with leaders all over the world; her spirituality and keen sense of hu- mor, and her devout earnestness, combined with rare literary ability, made the products of her mind and pen widely sought after. She was also a leader of inspiring personality, and a speaker of rare ability. According to 7 8 INTRODUCTION her own estimate, frequently expressed, the most fruit- ful and most far-reaching of all her lines of service were in the practical suggestions as to ‘“‘ Best Meth- ods ” in missionary work, contributed month by month for nearly ten years to The Missionary Review of the World. These Methods were not made up of impractical theories, but were the outcome of successful experi- ments. They have been tested in many churches and societies, in many homes and communities all over America and in other lands. These tested experiments are here made available for use in countless other churches, societies and homes. While, theoretically, every Christian should be in- terested in world-wide Christian missions, and all should have a part in our Lord’s program for advanc- ing the Kingdom of God among men, those who have tried to arouse missionary interest in lethargic church members know the difficulties, and will heartily wel- come any suggestions as to methods that give promise of success. There has been a wide demand for the publication of a volume containing the best of “ Mrs. Cronk’s Best Methods.”’ This work has been undertaken, as a labour of love, by the one who was her most intimate life comrade in spiritual fellowship and in Christian service. The result is shown in the alluring table of Contents in the present volume. Mrs. Cronk rests from her labours, but her works do follow. DELAVAN L., PIERSON. New York City. CONTENTS Ti LEE LAILLIPUTIAN PLBRESY you it rn aun enw ee RE Ty) PRAVER (AS) A METHOD OF WORK) 26 Say VLISSIONS TEN CED. LORE 65) Saal ee ie ge EVN SOULS WINNING (METHODS). oe en Os v. Missionary EpUCATION THROUGH EAR-GATE . 78 Mle eye GATE: NEETHODS Hi ech cla ye ayy ele mate Oy vu. THe StxtH SENSE IN MISSIONARY TRAINING. 115 vill. First, SECOND AND ‘THIRD OF MISSIONARY LITERATURE e ° e e ° e e ° be 131 POA ORE ING BY EROS ie ta Ve Nase Guan MRE ea aa x. Missionary METHODS FOR CouUNTRY CHURCHES . 163 xI. MuisstonAry Metuops ror Pastors. . . - 177 PC ALD HOGEIELA GIO Lie RU mas ee eA a K re Deal iN SU A i ni HY) \ ity hy Hae ; i } I THE LILLIPUTIAN HERESY VER since the days of the Church Fathers k. heresies have crept into the Church. There is a popular heresy of our day, not yet written down in any text-book of theology, but a heresy nevertheless, and one that is retarding our missionary progress. Someone has called it the Lilliputian Heresy. We women are largely responsible for it. We have haloed things of Lilliputian dimensions, and have petted the idea that gifts and service which would seem niggardly in any other realm become most magnanimous if they are given for missions. We have cornered the term “little” for missionary usage. Our form of invitation has become “‘ We want you to join us in a little mission- ary meeting.” We ask for “a Jittle gift,” and for “a little service.” We invite speakers to make “a little talk,” and we even suggest that ‘‘ we will now be led in a little prayer.” It is habit, but it is heretical habit. We are almost arriving at the point of assuming that a thing that is big must be bad in missionary circles, while some sus- picion attaches to the meetings which offer no rows of empty pews to vindicate their orthodoxy. I do not despise the day of small things, but do 11 12 MISSIONARY METHODS despise most heartily this belittling of the greatest work in the world. It is quite possible for us to enlarge our missionary circle without destroying the piety of the original little group. The gift of a million may carry with it the same measure of love and consecration as the gift of a mite. A prayer big enough to take in the great world circumference marked out by Him who said, “‘ Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inher- itance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy pos- session,” may be as earnest as the Jittle prayer for our own Jsttle circle. One of the first steps to be taken in the extermina- tion of the Lilliputian Heresy is the enlargement of our working force. Not half of our church members are enlisted in the missionary work, yet we go on planning our meetings for the same Jitile circle. Why not en- large the circle by bringing in others? A CALL FOR ENLARGEMENT Getting More People “In It” During a series of missionary meetings in New Orleans, I was talking with a little tot on the car. Thinking I was giving her a bit of news and an original invitation, I said: “‘ We are going to have some mis- sionary stories and pictures for the children tonight, and I want to give you a special invitation to be there.” “‘ Be there? ” she replied with much the same tone the President might use upon receiving an invitation to the Annual White House Reception—“ Be there? Why, I’m in it.” That night she sat up front and sang lustily in the chorus, to which the lecture and pictures were THE LILLIPUTIAN HERESY 13 but incidentals. Some of us are so used to being “ in it’ ourselves that we make little effort to get others “in it.” Nine women are “ out of it ” for every woman who is “in it,” when it comes to missionary work. Some of us pious, overworked martyrs, who gloat over such encomiums as “‘ She did the work of ten: women ” ought to be ashamed of ourselves. No head can wear ten crowns. No woman should rob nine other women of the joy and blessing of doing their own work and winning and wearing their own crowns. Be satisfied with doing the work of one woman, but be diligent in finding the other nine or ninety and nine and helping them to find their own work and to doit. This may be the more difficult task, but this is your work. The martyr missionary leader who opens the church, ar- ranges the chairs, conducts the meeting, plays the organ, leads the singing, and is in the majority in pro- gram rendition is chief on the Continuation Committee of the Lilliputian Heresy. Make the success of your meetings depend on just as many people as possible, and not on one woman only. Some Hostesses Not every woman can address a meeting. WHearers there would be none if all were speakers. One society greatly increased its attendance and added tremen- dously to its efficiency by what seemed the very simple thing of appointing two hostesses for each meeting. The meetings were held in the parish building, but the hostesses were charged with as much responsibility as if they were to receive their friends at a reception in their own home. Those who attended the missionary 14 MISSIONARY METHODS meetings soon acquired the air of expectant interest common to reception guests. The long-drawn sigh which had formerly accompanied the reminder, “ Oh, dear, this is the day for the missionary meeting,” was heard no more in the land. The room was transformed by decorations in keeping with the pro- gram for each day. Daintily kimonoed maidens wel- comed the members to the Japan meeting. Children from many lands, with their bright costumes, gave colouring to another meeting. Each program had its own attractive setting, and two more women, with the host of assistants they enlisted, were ‘“‘ in it ” each month. A Business Woman’s Division Many women there are who simply cannot attend a meeting at the time-honoured, customary hour of 3:30 Pp. M. Our circle would not be so little if we had a thought for them and arranged a meeting at 6:30 with a luncheon, or at eight without lunch. What an im- petus would be given the King’s business if we really enlisted our business women instead of appointing all of our meetings at impossible hours for them and then berating them for not attending! “ Here Comes the Bride” Everybody welcomes the bride—everybody except the missionary society. Parties and receptions there are on every hand, at every hour, and she gets into everything—everything except the missionary society. When the bride comes, why should she not come into the missionary society? Try a monthly or a quarterly or whenever necessary reception to the brides. Get eee THE LILLIPUTIAN HERESY 15 your society to present a year’s subscription to your missionary magazine to every bride. “ Under-Twenty ” and “ Over-Sixty” Meetings Sometimes the meetings are a bit old and tiresome for the girls who attend or who should attend. Try an “‘ under-twenty ”’ meeting, with no one over twenty on the program. Let the girls do everything. Very fre- quently our older women are so efficient, the young ones never get a chance to learn how. I cannot make cake. I think I might have learned this delectable art, but my mother made such perfect cake and my older sister never failed, so no one thought of wasting any eggs and butter on me. It would be better for us to waste a meeting or two rather than not have our girls and young women take hold of the work. We would likely find, however, that the meetings would be far from wasted and that new life would be imparted to them. One of the most far-reaching additions which could be made to the national campaigns of the Lay- men’s Missionary Movement would be meetings for boys under twenty. Then have an “ over-sixty ” meeting. The change in the choir and other program features would be refreshing and some of the older women might be brought in or kept from slipping out. Giving the Musicians a Chance Who can ever think of the Northfield Conferences without thinking of that wonderful choir of girls? They have helped to make the Conference and the Conference has helped to make them. We wonder why we did not think of it sooner. Why not think now of having a smaller choir of girls for smaller meetings? 16 MISSIONARY METHODS Why not a children’s choir? Give the musicians a chance to be “ in it.” Not long ago a prominent soloist was asked to sing at a missionary meeting. She did it with wonderful effectiveness and thanked the leader for giving her the chance. Be sure of your singer and of her song, however. Some selections can kill any meeting. A secretary of the Laymen’s Missionary Meeting came home some time ago with his head bowed in despair. ‘ For three successive Sundays,”’ he said, “in three different churches, I have tried my level best to get our laymen stirred up to do something in mission work. I have sat me down to mop the perspi- ration from my brow while the choir arose and softly sang ‘ Come unto me and I will give you rest.’” The woman who knows how to make everything count in programs selects suitable music. Artists “In It,’ Too “Eighty-five per cent of all we know we learn through the eye,” we glibly quote from the psycholo- gists, and then straightway plan our missionary work on the bare fifteen per cent possibility. The woman who talks is not the only disseminator of missionary intelligence. How do we know that “It floats”? From what speaker have we acquired the knowledge of ‘57 varieties’? What lecture course has dissemi- nated the universally accepted fact that ‘‘ Children cry for it”? We have simply seen it posted and printed until we are persuaded of it. Charts, posters, mottoes! Let us have more of them on our walls. Present to the women who long to address audiences, but cannot speak, the opportunity of systematic education afforded THE LILLIPUTIAN HERESY 17 by the bare walls of the Sunday-school and missionary society. Neglected Area Survey Conduct a survey to determine what kinds and classes of women and what individuals we are not pro- viding for in our enlistment campaigns. Make sure that our successors, the children, are not in the neglected area. ‘‘ Every woman a member of the mis- sionary society ” will not be realized until we begin with ‘ Every child in missionary training.” Reaching Outsiders One of the greatest results of the Jubilee meetings was the bringing in of women who had formerly seen the missionary circle only from the outside. We had fallen into the habit of planning our meetings year after year for those who were “in it.” The Jubilee meetings came along with their big program and their wide sweep and enlisted some of the best workers the cause has ever had. Some time ago a convention was being planned for a southern city. The usual addresses and discussions were planned to reach the usual attend- ants. A member of the program committee raised the question as to whether we had a right to go into a city, receive its hospitality for days and give nothing in re- turn. She proposed that a meeting be planned to which the whole city be invited. No church would hold such an audience, so she suggested that the meeting be held in a large theatre. “‘ You simply cannot get outsiders to a missionary meeting,” some one protested. “If we do not make the attempt, how will we ever get our message to outsiders and give them a chance to become 18 MISSIONARY METHODS ‘insiders ’? ” urged the woman with the big idea. The meeting was planned. Frequent clever press notices aroused a general interest. The director of music in the city schools was enlisted to train a chorus of chil- dren and young people. A young newspaper reporter asked to be assigned that meeting, but the interest had spread so that his chief answered, ‘“‘ My little girl has been talking about it so much, I think I’ll go around myself.”” Mary Pickford never turned away more dis- appointed throngs than were turned away that after- noon after every seat had been taken. It was a big meeting, and it was not a bad one, either. Misstonary Story Hour Another house was similarly packed when the chil- dren of a city were invited for an hour of hero stories. Many children who had never had an interior view of a missionary meeting, and who had an impression that all missionaries do is to be good and die early, listened spellbound to stories of the finest heroism to which they had ever been introduced. During Missionary Week at the Monteagle Chau- tauqua the missionary leaders arranged for the telling of missionary stories at the regular morning story hour which was attended by children of the entire summer colony. If we were keenly alive to the enlargement of our circle, we would get missionary stories into our books and see that they were among the stories told at our libraries. Reaching Every High-School Girl and Boy Robert E. Speer was in Columbia, S. C., some time ago. He might have come there and gone, having THE LILLIPUTIAN HERESY 19 touched only the theological students for whom his lecture course was planned, but a city school teacher had.a big idea. She kept hammering away at her idea until it took shape and the superintendent of city schools marched every boy and girl of high-school age into an auditorium, where they sat most willingly for an hour, held by the matchless story of Ion Keith- Falconer, with the tremendous missionary appeal made in its telling. Getting Missions in the Federation of Women’s Clubs Addresses on every phase of women’s activity at our State Federation—except the greatest of these, mis- sions. Why not have a compelling address by the best missionary speaker obtainable? Many of our most gifted women have never heard the appeal of the greatest work in the world. Study clubs and lecture courses on books ancient, medieval, and modern! Why not get our women’s clubs interested in Mission Study? A City-Wide Mission Study Campaign Our city had been having a little Mission Study for years. Last year we decided to have a Mission Study campaign big enough to reach every church and all the colleges. A Normal Training class for leaders was conducted in the fall. A directory containing the names and addresses of presidents of missionary organ- izations and of every Sunday-school teacher in the city was prepared. Invitations to a Sunday afternoon meeting in the interest of Mission Study were printed. On the preceding Sunday the committee, by twos, called on the officers and teachers as listed, explaining 20 MISSIONARY METHODS the purpose of the meeting and placing in the hands of each a sufficient number of invitations to be given personally to each member of the different organiza- tions and classes. The University of South Carolina, the colleges, and the Y. W. and Y. M. C. A. were in- terested. A university professor presided and the Uni- versity Quartet led the music. Scores of people who came were unable to get in the large theatre which was packed to the doors. After brief addresses, enrollment cards were distributed. These cards were signed and afterwards turned over to the churches indicated. Twelve hundred and ninety people were enrolled for classes as the result of that campaign. Inside Secrets of Big Meetings The managers of one of our summer conferences were greatly troubled because they could not get the people of the town to attend their platform meetings. They thought a woman was promising the impossible when she agreed to put standing room at a premium for a missionary lecture. The speaker made no change in her lecture, but planned an exercise and a children’s chorus to accompany it. With mathematical precision she estimated that if fifty children were in the chorus, an attendance of fifty-two was thereby guaranteed— the chorus, the lecturer and the pianist. Then, just so as to avoid all risk, she put the meeting well after dark and, reckoning on a necessary escort to the chorus, added fifty more to her calculations. Allowing for shrinkage in escorts in the case of two children from the same family, but counting on parents, grand- parents, uncles, aunts and cousins, she told the janitor THE LILLIPUTIAN HERESY 21 to have chairs ready. They were all needed—every one of them, and more. | Keeping Missions Before the Public Whose fault is it that news of the greatest work in the world is confined to such a Uittle circle? In the press work for a laymen’s convention in a southern city I was arranging for space with the editor of one of the dailies. He told me we could have all the space for which we furnished “live stuff the people want.” Then he smiled a peculiar smile and said: “ For a year or so I ran several columns of religious copy once a week. One week it was left out through an over- sight. Nobody kicked. The next week I left it out on purpose, and waited to see what would happen. Nothing happened. That’s why I have never run it since. If it had been market quotations or the sport- ing page or society notes, my phone would have rung half of the night. We give the people what they want.” When women are just as much interested in know- ing that a missionary meeting is to be held as that “‘the bride is to wear real lace which was her grand- mother’s, and pearls, the gift of the groom,” then editors will give space to missionary news—if we get it to them. I heard an editor of a great daily say, “ Your mis- sion boards pigeonhole news for months that we news- paper men would wire in as a scoop.”” We note by the daily press that Mrs. Archibald von Chancellor is soon to visit Mrs. Beverly Randolph Sloan. A few days later we note that Mrs. Archibald von Chancellor is 22 MISSIONARY METHODS visiting Mrs. Beverly Randolph Sloan. Still later we are informed that Mrs. Archibald von Chancellor, who has been visiting Mrs. Beverly Randolph Sloan, has returned to her home. Three runs for Mrs. Archibald von Chancellor’s visit, in its future, present, and past tenses, yet John G. Paton once spoke twelve miles from my home and I did not know it. Oh, that some mis- sionary hostess had been as eager for the world to hear of her guest as was Mrs. Beverly Randolph Sloan! Oh, that the missionary women had as complete and capable editorial service as have the society women! The Federated Boards could syndicate enough thrilling stories from their missions, that all of the newspapers would recognize as live stuff, to run one every week. An Associated Press of the Federated Boards could furnish a national news service which would reach thousands of interested workers and interest hundreds of thousands yet unreached, if we could only put down the Lilliputian Heresy. LILLIPUTIAN GIFTS Belittling Our Cause to Secure the Public’s Cash To the outside public a woman’s missionary society is a clever scheme for the extraction of small coin. The outside public has had, in times not yet altogether past, some foundation for its conclusions. The lone oyster swimming in a bowl of soup priced at twenty-five cents, the magnifying glass necessary to find the ice cream on the plate at a missionary supper are become matters of popular jest. We have belittled our cause thinking to enlarge our coffers. We have asked women to eat a plate of ice cream whom we should have asked to sup- THE LILLIPUTIAN HERESY 23 port a mission station or to endow a hospital. We have cajoled and wheedled dimes and quarters from men whom we might have led to support a missionary. We have doled out pennies and nickels and dimes our- selves, and then ended our reports with, “ She hath done what she could.” I have never yet heard, at a Woman’s Missionary Convention, a treasurer’s report so Lilliputian as not to receive this final quotation, along with an expectant reference to “ that welcome plaudit, ‘ Well done, good and faithful servant.’ ” At the annual missionary meeting in a rural church, a full-grown person, masculine gender, approaching six feet in stature, cast into the treasury his annual gift. I was near him and noted that the coin was a brown one. He smiled and said to me, “ Well, I guess the Lord always blesses the widow’s mite.” I think the Lord knew he was not a widow and that He pronounced no encomiums on the mite given by a prosperous land- owner, yet we have countenanced that sort of thing for so long that the most counterfeited character in the Bible is the poor widow. We should ask for larger gifts. A board secretary called on a woman and, with some hesitation, asked for a contribution of $75 for a scholarship for one boy in Japan. She gave him $4,000 to erect a new dormitory for many boys. Not long ago a man declined to give a contribution of a single dollar for missions. A few months later he was asked for $500 to make possible the opening of a chapel. He wrote a check for that amount. Our Jittle requests do not arouse a great in- terest. Our methods have tended to making patrons 24 MISSIONARY METHODS and patronesses instead of training stewards. “We have now come to the most unpleasant part of our program,” said a missionary chairman at a finance session. Why should it be unpleasant? Only because we have belittled it and made it so. One of our great- est joys should be in helping people to invest their money in the kingdom. Big Drafts on Time and Service Our demands for service are so little that we seldom get beyond asking for “odd moments” and “ spare time.” Women have reached wonderful heights in de- votion and in service, but only to the causes which have demanded great things of them. A cause which de- mands “ only ten cents a month ” and “ what time you can spare’’ is never going to enlist a woman for any sublime self-sacrifice or heroic service. A board secre- tary was at a college reception. ‘ Who is the girl sit- ting over there? ” he asked of the president. ‘ Our valedictorian, and the brightest girl in the class.” “We need her for China,” said the secretary. The president smiled at the improbability of it, but the sec- retary insisted on meeting the girl. He had learned to ask people for great things for God, and in his first sentence to the valedictorian he proposed that she give her life to China. The girl was surprised, then resent- ful, then thoughtful. She would not have considered giving a little of her time, but she did consider giving her life, and she is in China today. The Supreme Test The greatest givers are those who give their sons and daughters to bear the message glorious. No one THE LILLIPUTIAN HERESY 25 can read the story of Horace Tracy Pitkin heroically yielding up his life in China in the Boxer uprising and think of the cause which claimed him as little, yet he elevated it to the supremest heights when he sent to his little boy this message: ‘‘ Tell little Horace that his father’s last wish is that when he is twenty-one he should come out to China.” Dr. John Scudder, giving up his practice in New York to go out to India, mag- nifies the work in our eyes, but there comes to us the realization of the overwhelming greatness of it when we see such a man consecrate to it every one of his gifted sons and daughters, rejoicing as each heard and answered the call. The time has been when mothers and fathers have felt shame if no son of theirs went forth to war. The time is coming when Christian mothers and fathers will feel a greater shame if they have given neither son nor daughter “to follow in His train.” Great Strength for a Great Task Three boys played on a Virginia hillside. A huge boulder came crashing down, pinning one boy to the ground. His comrades looked at the great rock, then they looked at their fellow, and put their shoulders against the boulder. It gave a little. They pushed again and again, until the prisoner was free. The next day two men tried to move the rock and could not. Neither could the boys move it again. With the great demand had come a great strength. In each life there is undreamed-of power which will never be manifest until some big demand is made on it. Down with the Lilliputian Heresy! II PRAYER AS A METHOD OF WORK DID SHE GO? in a country school, lay the commission of her Saviour, “ Go into all the world and preach the Gospel.” Since that day when Martha Campbell went back and forth to her little school the years have come and the years have gone until the young school teacher of a generation ago is the grandmother of today, with whit- ened hair. All of her life has been lived in America, yet there is no land into which she has not gone. When, as a young mother, most of the days of her life were shut in by the walls of her home, and most of her time was claimed by the six children, who came to that home, ‘“ the uttermost part of the earth ”’ seemed far beyond the reach of her life. Little dreamed she, as she went about the endless round of daily duties, that that home of hers was a centre of a circle of in- fluence which would reach round the world. | As each new life was given to her care, she conse- crated that life to God. Caring for six active, vigor- ous girls and boys and providing for each of them the education upon which her heart was set, was not a task for idle moments. Yet, notwithstanding the poverty which makes many mothers yield to the temptation to ' 26 |: the heart of Martha Campbell, a young teacher PRAYER AS A METHOD OF WORK 27 take their children from school, this mother, with quiet determination, kept ever before her ideals for a Christian education for each one of her children, and was rewarded by seeing five of them complete the course at the University of Wooster, at Wooster, Ohio, the youngest having to drop out because of poor health. Would it be possible today to hold in any other home on earth a family reunion which would gather together a circle of wider missionary influence than the sons and daughters, the sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, through whom this consecrated mother has gone to the uttermost part of the earth? The eldest son is Wilbert W. White, of New York, whose influence as a missionary and as the founder of the Bible Teachers’ Training School, is felt throughout the mission stations of every land. The eldest daughter is Mrs. Compton. She and her husband, Rev. Charles R. Compton, spent years in frontier Home Mission service in Nebraska and Mon- tana, and are now working in the University of Wooster, preparing young men for Christian service. Mrs. John R. Mott is the second daughter. Through her wide missionary influence and through the mission- ary statesmanship of Dr. Mott, the students and the Christian leaders of the entire world have felt the touch of that little home in Ohio. In China, Mrs. W. R. Stewart, the other daughter, is proclaiming tidings of salvation, working with her husband, of the Y. M. C. A. force in China. This quiet mother never addressed an audience in 28 MISSIONARY METHODS her life, but perhaps no other one man in America has ever stirred as many thousands of the men of America to a recognition of their world obligation as has her second son, J. Campbell White, formerly a missionary in India and later the first General Secretary of the Laymen’s Missionary Movement of the United States and Canada. His experience as a foreign missionary convinced him that the greatest need of foreign mis- sions was an adequate support from the home base. So he returned to America to set a new standard for mis- sionary support. He changed dimes to dollars, dollars to hundreds, hundreds to thousands and thousands to millions. Now Dr. White is devoting his life to the other great need which his experience made evident— the need for trained missionary leadership. As one by one her children gave their lives to mis- sionary service the mother said to each one, “ Long before you knew anything about it, I gave you to God for His service.” So Mrs. Martha Campbell White, while remaining all of her life in the United States of America, has gone into all of the world. THE BEST METHOD OF WORK First in best methods for missionary works stands prayer. In counting our methods of work we do not count enough on this first and best method. “If you cannot do anything else,” we say comfortingly to the inefficient worker, who pleads lack of time and lack of every other qualification, ‘‘ you can pray,” as if prayer required neither time nor any other qualification, and as if prayer were a sort of last extremity to be resorted PRAYER AS A METHOD OF WORK 29 to ‘if you cannot do anything else.” Prayer is not a last extremity, but a first necessity. It requires time, and costs more than most people are willing to pay. “I would rather teach one man how to pray than teach ten men how to preach,” said a great teacher of theol- ogy. Preaching reaches the heart of men, but prayer reaches the heart of God also. Sometimes it would seem that we regard prayer merely as a precautionary measure to insure safety. Deeper than the outward seeming was the estimate of prayer of the little boy whose mother reminded him one night that he had gone to bed without saying his prayers. ‘“ Yes, I know it,” said the lad. “I didn’t say them night before last and nothing got me, and I didn’t say them last night and nothing got me, and now I’m not going to say them tonight and, if nothing gets me then, I’m never going to say them any more.” Deep down in many hearts is a childish impression that prayer is a sort of ‘“‘ rabbit’s foot ”—a fetish for night wear to keep away the dangers that hover in the dark- ness. When day is done, the weary mother says with mechanical repetition, ‘‘ Now, children, don’t forget to brush your teeth and say your prayers,” and the little ones, through constant association of the two duties, get an impression that both are sanitary measures necessary to produce healthful sleep. The Apostle Paul regarded prayer as a method of work, a great avenue of service. To him it was no half-hearted spiritual form, but a real missionary ser- vice and labour. He used the phrase, ‘“‘ Labouring fervently for you in prayer,’ and classed those who 30 MISSIONARY METHODS prayed as his real co-labourers. ‘“ Ye also helping to- gether by prayer for us,” and “ Strive together with me in your prayers to God for me,” besought this great pioneer missionary, of the early Christians. He recog- nized that his victories came through the prayers of those who interceded for him, for he wrote, ‘‘ Through your prayers I shall be given unto you.” In today’s acts of the apostles, prayer has the same primal place. Pastor Ding Li Mei, China’s great man of prayer, who has influenced more men to go into the ministry and other forms of Christian service than any other man of modern times in Asia, was asked by some one who marvelled at the results of his work, what his method was. Pastor Ding answered simply, “I have no method except prayer.” In these days of ours, when there is so much de- mand for new methods and catchy devices for our mis- sionary work, let us make sure that deep down as the underlying foundation of every other method we place prayer as our first and chiefest method of work. METHODS FOR PRAYER IN OUR INDIVIDUAL LIVES A boy who went to carry an important message for his father, was late and hurried off to the task as fast as he could. Breathless and exhausted he reached his destination; then he gasped, ‘‘Oh, I was in such a hurry I forgot to get the message I came to bring.” In the busy whirl of our lives many of us are rushing out to the task to which we have consecrated ourselves— the carrying of His messages—without tarrying awhile to get the message ere we go, without interceding for the work ere we face it. If our missionary workers PRAYER AS A METHOD OF WORK 31 would determine upon prayer as their chief method of work what could we not accomplish? Many of us who have an impulse to give prayer a definite time and place in our lives “ fall away ” because we are amazed to find the pathway to intercession beset with difficul- ties. When we discover that we do not drift easily into a period of daily prayer and that it is really a difficult task to pray, we have a feeling that something must be wrong with us and that unless prayer is spontaneous, and irrepressible, we should not pray. We forget Paul’s terms “ strive” and “ labour,” which indicate that prayer may require some effort. A DEFINITE TIME FOR PRAYER It heartens those of us who are weak to catch the veiled suggestion that even to a man like John Wesley there must have come subtle temptations to neglect his prayer life, as we read his firm resolution with which he met such temptations: “I resolve to devote an hour morning and evening to private prayer, no pretense, no excuse whatsoever.”’ As we go out to prayerless days of work we can but doubt the sincerity of our protesta- tions of our insufficiency for the tasks to be done, when we claim we have so much to do we have no time for prayer. The great hero of Protestantism, Martin Luther, as he faced the tremendous volume of work before him, said, “ I am so busy now that if I did not spend two or three hours each day in prayer I could not get through the day.” : A missionary who has lived a life of power in Africa was asked the secret of that power. As he stood in the midst of the little prayer group at a Summer Confer- 32 MISSIONARY METHODS ence, those around him could almost see a halo on his head. They fancied he lived far above the petty an- noyances of their daily lives. They were brought down to an every-day earth when he told them that his secret was an alarm clock. Said he: “‘ When I first went to Africa the great rush of duties and opportunities fairly overwhelmed me. Early and late calls came and knocks sounded at my door. Every night I went to bed utterly exhausted. In the morning when I woke I thought, ‘ Surely the Lord would rather I turned over and took another nap to fit me for the many duties I must face this day, than that I should get up to pray.’ Then I began to realize that my work was lacking in power, so I resolved to get up an hour earlier each day and to spend that hour in prayer. Through that hour of prayer God has wrought great things and now there are thousands of Christians in our mission station, who do not know that Christians any- where ever attempt to face the duties and opportunities of a day without prayer.” Equally commonplace and practical is the method adopted by three of the great missionaries in China, who agreed together that they would never go to break- fast until they had spent at least a half hour in prayer. They may miss an occasional breakfast, but never have they missed that half hour of prayer. CONSERVING TIME FOR PRAYER Conservation is on every lip, yet our days are full of wasted moments, many of which might be conserved for prayer. Said Sir Thomas Browne, the great physi- cian, “I have resolved to pray more and to pray always; to pray in all places where quietness inviteth, in the house, on the highway, and on the street; and to PRAYER AS A METHOD OF WORK 33 know no street or passage in this city that may not witness that I have not forgotten God.” Another godly man, who many times each day had to walk up and down the street of the little town in which he lived, said, “I have made that street a pathway of prayer. As I have gone by each house I have prayed for the members of the family who live there.” A busy woman, who has literally prayed up the walls of mis- sionary institutions and prayed the money needed for their support into empty treasuries, said recently, “I have learned to use for prayer, moments I used to waste. I used to get impatient waiting at the tele- phone. Now I always spend those waiting moments in prayer, first of all for the tired girl at the other end of the line and then for others. When I get on a street car now I always pray for the motorman and conductor and then for my fellow passengers.” METHODS FOR PRAYER IN OUR HOMES Said an Oriental student who spent her Christmas holiday in a Christian home in America, “‘ There’s one thing that seems very queer to me about your homes in America. I have gone to your churches and seen you worship the God in your churches, and I have seen the students worship the God in your colleges, but I miss the God in your home. In my country, every house has its god-shelf and so I am used to a god in my home.” ‘That great missionary to the New Hebrides, John G. Paton, was used to a God in his home, and because there was a method of prayer in the old Paton home, and because of the earnest petitions offered at that family altar, the great hero of the New Hebrides 34 MISSIONARY METHODS received his first missionary impulse, as he testified in later life. On the women of America rests, to a large extent, the responsibility for our prayerless homes. Ours is a life of hurry and whirling confusion. If we could only know the peace, the poise and the power of the homes in which fervent prayer is wont to be made we would have an altar in our homes at all cost. We can do it if we will. ‘“ But,’ says a busy mother, “ my children go out to their work at different hours in the morning and come in at different hours at night. What chance do I have for prayer with them? ” From China comes the inspiration of a mother who, as an idol worshipper, had been accustomed to commend her children to the protection of her gods. When she became a Christian she made it her rule to go with each child to the place in her house which she set apart for prayer, and pray, so that each one went out to the day’s work with his mother’s prayers. SPECIAL MEETINGS FOR PRAYER The best method of meeting special needs is by special prayer, yet we seldom call a missionary meet- ing specifically for prayer. A young pastor was des- perately ill. The physicians said there was little hope for his recovery. On Wednesday night the nurse and the physicians thought he could not live through the night. One of the deacons called at the parsonage and whispered sympathetically to the pastor’s young wife, “Of course we called off the prayer-meeting for to-night.” “Called off the prayer-meeting for to-night? ” said PRAYER AS A METHOD OF WORK 35 she. “If there was ever a night when the prayer- meeting should be held it is to-night.” So instead of calling off the prayer-meeting an earnest group gathered together for specific intercession to the God who prom- ised that the prayers of faith shall save the sick. All of the other pastors of the little town came to pray with the congregation. Almost immediately the sick pastor began to rally and the physicians decided they had been mistaken in their diagnosis. PRAYER IN OUR REGULAR MEETINGS We do not take enough time for prayer in our regu- lar meetings. Even in the periods of intercession at our conventions and conferences, we spend a large part of the time in talking about the importance of prayer instead of in praying; then, just before the bell rings, or the bugle blows, we say hurriedly and in conclusion, “‘ Let us pray.” Our programs of study are planned carefully for each year. Our programs of prayer should be just as carefully planned. A good Committee on Intercession can do much to develop the prayer life of the members. Let this committee study carefully the needs, make prayer for these needs an important part of every meet- ing, giving to every member at the close of each meeting a card on which are noted things for which especial prayer is to be offered during the month, and arrange for prayer circles. WILL PRAYER MEET OUR NEEDS? More Missionaries One of the greatest needs of the missionary work is more missionaries. Does prayer furnish a method of 36 MISSIONARY METHODS securing them? It is the one authoritative Scriptural method for missionary supply. ‘ Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that he send forth labourers into his har- vest” (Matt. 9:38). The history of missionaries is a record of prayer. On Denmark’s throne, pious King Frederick IV. becomes greatly concerned for the salva- tion of the great non-Christian world. He searches all - over his kingdom for missionaries. Earnestly he prays that God will send forth labourers, and even as he prays two German university students, Bartholomew Ziegenbalg and Henry Plutschau, pledge their lives to missionary service and afterward go out as his repre- sentatives,—the first Protestant missionaries in India. On the rocky coast of northern Africa a mother spends an entire night in prayer that God will call her worldly son into His service. In answer to that prayer the world has its St. Augustine. Another mother, as she lies on her death-bed, calls her husband and her pastor to her side and begs that they will take up the training and the prayers for her son which she must lay down. The world looks at that wild, dissipated son and fancies the mother’s prayers are unanswered, but in later years Christian Frederick Schwartz gives his great life in princely service to India, in answer to those prayers. A babe is carried by his mother to her secret place of prayer and consecrated to God for missionary ser- vice. Years afterward, Jacob Chamberlain sets sail for India in answer to that prayer. We have heard more about a mother’s prayers than about a father’s prayers, but there have been many PRAYER AS A METHOD OF WORK 37 fathers who have prevailed in prayer, and there have been mothers and fathers who have agreed as touching this thing they should ask. Dr. and Mrs. John Scud- der consecrated each one of their fourteen children to God for missionary service. One by one their eight sons who lived to maturity were sent to America to be educated and one by one they were prayed back into India. All birthday anniversaries were set apart as seasons of fasting and prayer by these devoted parents. The eldest son was a reckless youth, who gave little promise of returning to India as a missionary, but while he was in school in America a great volume of prayer was ascending to God from India for him, and he finally consecrated his life to God. He discovered later that, at the very time he had made this consecra- tion in America, his father and mother had spent a week in fasting and prayer for him in India. With the exception of one who died at Princeton, after having decided to become a missionary, the eight sons came back to India to preach Christ, while the two daughters also rendered valiant missionary service in answer to the intercession of the parents who agreed together to pray that all of their children should be not Christians only, but missionaries. Before our workers in the homeland there should be always a list of the mission- aries needed. The Committee on Intercession should keep this list constantly before the members and daily each of us should pray for the labourers needed. Fifteen years ago a speaker made a missionary ad- dress at a convention in Georgia. Among the men and women who thronged the church there was a boy, a 38 MISSIONARY METHODS bright-faced lad who sat on the front seat and listened eagerly. During the years that followed, that speaker prayed that that promising boy might consecrate his life to the Gospel ministry and the missionary service. The years passed by. The boy entered college. Then came the announcement that although he had consid- ered entering the ministry he had finally decided to study medicine. Then one day a letter came to a theological seminary from a young medical student, who, for some reason, found himself under a divine compulsion to change his course and prepare himself for the Gospel ministry. Blessing on Missions and Missionaries We need not only more mission stations and more missionaries, but we need also that those we have shall be more greatly blessed in their work. Prayer can secure additional strength and power for them. A young missionary was ready to sail for Japan. A friend in America longed to speed this young messenger of the Cross on the way with some great gift. She bought seven copies of The Ministry of Intercession and presented one to the missionary and the other six to six friends who formed a prayer circle to intercede for the worker in Japan. We quote frequently: “In foreign lands they wondered how Their words that day had power; At home the workers two or three Had mei to pray an hour.” But might they not more frequently wonder why their words lack power, as day after day passes with no workers at home met to pray? On the prayer list PRAYER AS A METHOD OF WORK 39 of our church members should be the names of our missionaries in the home and foreign fields, and groups should pray together for special needs as they arise. Here is the opportunity which comes to us to be citi- zens of the world, to obey the commission to “‘ Go into all the world.”” Most of us will spend our lives in the land of our birth, and priceless, beyond all words to express, is this ever-present opportunity to obey that commission. There are workers who literally encircle the globe with their prayers. Prayer makes a world- life possible to each one of us. Mary Lyon stayed in America. Fidelia Fiske went to Persia, yet, by her prayers and by the linking of the colleges in America to the college in Persia, by prayer, Mary Lyon went into Persia also. ‘‘ Each day,” said an earnest worker, “T think of the Lord’s command, ‘ Go ye,’ and I ask myself, ‘ How far did I go today?’ My heart over- flows with thanksgiving that I am not limited to a one- country life, but that I can go to China, to Japan, to Africa, ‘ into all the world’ each day in prayer.” Paul says something about working together with him through prayer. Here is an opportunity to link our lives to some of the great ones of earth and to have part in their work. In an audience in a missionary conference in Pennsylvania a speaker noted especially a woman with a radiant face and snow-white hair. At the close of the service this saint with the shining face said to the speaker, who had sought her out in the throng, “ ’Tis not the first time we have met, my dear. Many times, in the middle of the night when I cannot sleep, I have prayed for you, in your work, as I noted 40 MISSIONARY METHODS from the papers, the different meetings you were ad- dressing.” ‘The same speaker was to make an address at Benedict College, a school for negroes at Columbia, S.C. Just before the meeting began, a girl stepped up to her and asked if she would come out into the vesti- bule a moment, with the committee. Thinking that perhaps there was to be a final word of caution about the length of the address, or some detail to be arranged, she went out. In a little room were gathered the girls who formed the devotional committee. Their dusky faces were intense in their earnestness as the chairman said, ‘“ We always pray with our speakers before they speak. May we pray with you?” Perhaps there would be fewer disappointed audiences if there were more “ prayed with” speakers. As we are searching for the best methods let us not overlook some method which will lift each of us out of the little, narrow con- fines of her own life, into fellowship with those who labour for Christ’s Kingdom throughout the world. “ SHUT IN” WITH GOD There are always those who are “ shut in,” who can- not be present for the meetings. For one reason or anonther they must be shut out from attendance. Why should they not be “‘ shut in ” with God in inter- cession? A consecrated young worker said, ‘I never try to hold a meeting any more without an intercessor ——someone who is praying while I am trying to lead the meeting.” Here opens a wide door of active par- ticipation in the work to many who have felt that being ‘shut in” must, of necessity, mean being “ shut out ” also. A Pennsylvania pastor testifies that one of his PRAYER AS A METHOD OF WORK 41 most helpful listeners is a woman who is so totally deaf that she has not heard a word he has said for years, but who spends the hour of service interceding for him. Make it possible for all of those who are shut out from the meetings for any cause, to become interces- sors, by furnishing them with a list of things to be prayed for, and by keeping them in touch with the work. A LARGER ENLISTMENT Not half of the members of our churches are enlisted in the missionary work. Each of our missionary socie- ties should have a double roll. On the one should be recorded the names of those who are members, and on the other the names of those who should be enlisted. Copies of these rolls should be furnished each member and prayer should be made for those who are not inter- ested. Instead of careless, indifferent canvasses for new members, each canvass should begin in prayer. Different circles may work and pray especially for the members assigned their circle. Some of the most gifted workers in missionary service today are there because someone, perhaps someone of lesser gifts, prayed for them, then sought them with the message, ‘“‘ The Mas- ter is come and calleth for thee.” MEETING THE NEED FOR MORE MONEY At every conference on methods there are eager queries, “ Can you give us any new methods of raising money? ‘That is what we need most of all.” The Bible has very little to say on the subject of raising money. It has much to say on the subject of giving money and using money. What we need is not clever 42 MISSIONARY METHODS devices for extracting gifts, but abiding principles for training givers. God’s people have in their pockets, in their vaults and in their business all the money God needs for missionary enterprise. When we stoop to devices which we condone by saying, ‘‘ Of course it is not the best way, but we needed the money so much we thought it would be all right,” we belittle the power and the riches of God. We have bent our backs in freezing ice cream and stewing oysters instead of bend- ing our knees in prayer. We can pray more money into the mission treasury than we can either freeze or stew into it. A home mission church in Georgia had for twelve years tried every new device that was suggested for securing funds. At the end of twelve years a handful of members still worshipped in a rented hall. The church council met together and resolved to make the financing of the church a matter of special prayer. They decided to put their finances on a Scriptural basis and to ask for free-will offerings only. A splendid lot was purchased and the erection of a church begun. There was never a week during the building of that church that the treasurer had on hand enough money for the pay roll for more than that one week, yet there was never a week at the end of which he failed to have enough. Now a handsome stone church stands on that lot and a large congregation of people, who are faithful stewards and firm believers in prayer, worships there. Every canvass for funds should be begun in prayer. All special needs may be met by prayer. A mission PRAYER AS A METHOD OF WORK 43 board secretary had arranged to go to a woman of great wealth to ask for a contribution for missions. Time and again she had been asked for gifts to mis- sions, but she had never made a large gift. Before this secretary made his visit, a group of earnest men and women agreed as touching this thing they would inter- cede with God. They were rejoiced to hear that, in answer to their prayers, a gift of ten thousand dollars was made. Let us be done forever with the depreca- tory introduction to a presentation of a great financial opportunity; ‘‘ We have now come to the unpleasant part of our program.” Let us banish forever our “ beg- ging committees.’’ Let us decide once for all that we will never lower our standards to raise money. Then let us pray earnestly for the money that is needed and, as ambassadors with the profound consciousness of carrying a message from the King, let us present to God’s stewards the needs and claims of His Kingdom. A definite statement of financial needs and opportuni- ties should be placed in the hands of each member as an aid to prayer. WE HOLD THE MEASURE There was once a great spring to which the people came for water. Some brought tiny cups, others brought buckets, others came with barrels. Each went away with his vessel full. Each decided the measure of his supply by the size of the vessel with which he came, while the never-failing supply of the great spring continued to flow on. We get an impression that God pours out great measure to some and small measure to others. God indeed pours out, but we hold the meas- 44, MISSIONARY METHODS ure. He placed that measure in human hands when He said, “‘ According unto thy faith be it unto thee.” That was the measure placed in the hands of George Miiller. God poured out the blessing. George Miller held the measure until his faith measured over eight million dollars for the care of his orphans. That was the measure placed in the hands of Hudson Taylor. God poured out the blessing. Hudson Taylor held the measure until his faith measured out the China Inland Mission. That was the measure placed in the hands of Pastor Gossner. God poured out the blessing. Pastor Gossner held the measure until his faith meas- ured one hundred and forty-four missionaries sent out, mission stations opened, and mission hospitals erected. That was the measure placed in the hands of Theodore Fliedner. God poured out the blessing. Pastor Flied- ner with an empty pocket went out and bought the best house in Kaiserwerth and his faith measured out to the world its Christian deaconesses. That was the measure placed in the hands of Dwight L. Moody. God poured out the blessing. Moody held the measure until it measured multiplied thousands led to Calvary’s Cross; until it measured out Northfield and Mount Hermon, sending their workers to the ends of the earth. THE LIMITLESS OPPORTUNITY There are limits to the opportunities and possibili- ties of all methods of work save one. The only limit- less opportunity is prayer. He who has learned to pray knows no limitations of geography: he can cross oceans and climb mountains. He knows no limitations of poverty: any needed blessing is his. He overcomes the PRAYER AS A METHOD OF WORK 45 limitations of weakness: his strength is made the strength of ten and single-handed he puts a thousand to flight. Prayer has sent out missionaries and supported them. Prayer has built mission stations and equipped hospitals. Prayer has opened closed doors and given entrance into the hearts of men. The only limit placed on what may be accomplished through prayer is the limit of our faith. ‘“ According unto thy faith be it unto thee ” is not an obsolete meas- ure of the early Church but the measure and the limita- tion of what we now accomplish through prayer. WHAT GOD HAS SAID OF PRAYER All things, whatsoever ye ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. Matt. 21:22. If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ask what- soever ye will, and it shall be done unto you. John 15:7. Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will Ido. John 14:13. If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father, who is in heaven. Matt. 18:19. And Jehovah saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor. Isaiah 59:16. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not. James 1:5. Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Luke 11:9. Before they call I will answer; and while they are yet speaking I will hear. Isaiah 65:24. If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father who is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him? Matt. 7:11. Ask of me and I will give thee the nations for thine in- 46 MISSIONARY METHODS heritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy pos- session. Psalm 2:8. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he send forth labourers into his harvest. Luke 10:2. If my people, who are called by name shall pray, then will I hear from heaven. 2 Chron. 7:14. Pray without ceasing. 1 Thess. 5:17. WHAT MEN HAVE SAID OF PRAYER Whoever prays most, helps most.—Wzulliam Goodell. Expect great things from God.—William Carey. Every step in the progress of missions is directly trace- able to prayer.—Arthur T. Pierson. He who faithfully prays at home does as much for foreign missions as the man on the field, for the nearest way to the heart of a Hindu or a Chinaman is by way of the throne of God.—Eugene Stock. Let us advance upon our knees.—Joseph Harding Neesima. Communion without service is a dream; service without communion is ashes—Robert E. Speer. I never prayed sincerely for anything but it came, at some time—no matter at how distant a day—somehow, in some shape—it came.—Adoniram Judson. I resolve to devote an hour morning and evening to pri- vate prayer, no pretense, no excuse whatsoever.—Johkn Wesley. Ten minutes spent in Christ’s society every day; aye ten minutes, if it be face to face and heart to heart, will make the whole life different—Henry Drummond. We must not conceive of prayer as an overcoming of God’s reluctance, but as a laying hold of His highest wil- lingness.—Archbishop Trench. I am so busy now that if I did not spend two or three hours each day in prayer I could not get through the day.— Martin Luther. Ill MISSIONS IN THE HOME HE great conventions, the training schools, the chairs of missions in universities—all these are the superstructure. Foundation stones are laid in the missionary influence and training of the home. True it is that there are some striking stories of late conversion, but a large per cent of the heroes and heroines of missions can scarcely tell when their missionary interest began. It grew simply and natur- ally as a part of their daily home training. At the 1920 meeting of the International Missionary Union at Clifton Springs it was found that nearly one- third of the one hundred and ten missionaries present made their decision for missionary service because of home influence. MISSIONS NOT AN ELECTIVE There has been an inclination in many homes to treat missions as an optional attachment to Christianity with connections to be established only on Sundays, or even on annual or quarterly Sundays. A principal of one of the large schools in a Pennsyl- vania city recently made a word test on “ missionary.” The answers of her juniors are indicative of a some- what general impression. One wrote: “ Missionary is a place where women go.” The definition of another was: ‘‘ A basket they pass around in church.” 47 48 MISSIONARY METHODS The missionary spirit is not an external attachment but an inward development,—an attitude of life. The home is the centre of largest possibility in training boys and girls who will be ‘“‘ missionary ” not only on Sun- days but every day of their lives, not only if they should go to Africa or Tibet, but as they live each day in their homes and in their schools. A home that is missionary in all its relationships exerts an influence that reaches to the ends of the earth. Taking Missionaries Alive. ‘“ No bandits were ever more eager to capture a missionary alive than is Mr. Blank,” said a pastor who was arranging for the enter- tainment of a visiting missionary. Other members of the official board had politely stated various reasons for exemption when the pastor called for a host to take the visitor home. “Put him at a hotel. It’s much more pleasant for him anyway,” said one deacon. ‘“‘T know that’s easier on the missionary,” said Mr. Blank, ‘‘ than to have my quartet climbing around over him and leading him all over the house, but think of me. Why, I’d rather entertain a missionary than the King of Spain. I am not caring to have any of my boys dream of castles or kings in Spain, but I care tre- mendously that they shall have missionary ideals before them. That agricultural missionary I had over last year completely captivated my eldest, and the youngest sat entranced on the lap of the medical missionary we had in the fall, while he told him all about his hospital in China. My boys are getting a real conception of what missionaries are doing in the world’s work.” MISSIONS IN THE HOME 49 The famous missionary bishop, Coleridge Patteson, counted as one of the. strongest influences of his life the delegate whom his mother, Lady Patteson, enter- tained in her home. With his arm around “ Coley,” Bishop Selwyn told the lad stories and talked with him during those days in a way which Patteson, as a lad and later as a bishop, never forgot. For Guests Under Sixteen. Why do we have all our receptions for older folks? When you have a mission- ary as a guest in your home, give a reception to the children of the community. With decorations and re- freshments typical of the country from which the guest comes, and possibly some children in costume to assist in receiving and in entertaining; with stories told by the missionary, and games of other lands played, a most delightful occasion is assured. Guests From Many Nations. One mother, who is eager that her children should have a circle of world friendships, carefully plans to entertain in her home, guests of different nationalities. To the many foreign students as well as to foreigners who are not students, American hospitality may be made most welcome while at the same time our American young people may be given an opportunity really to know some of the strangers who are in our midst. Using Pictures at Home 1. Add to the pictures on the walls some of the good missionary pictures now available. An interesting touch may be added by draping pictures with flag of country from which the missionary came and the coun- try to which he went. 50 MISSIONARY METHODS 2. Give to boys and girls small pictures of mission- ary heroes and heroines which they can mount or frame for their bed-rooms. The story of the missionary may be told or read as the picture is given, so that the chil- dren may learn really to know each one. 3. The Picture Story Series contains the following sets of pictures. Stories to be told as pictures accom- panying each set are shown: v African Picture Stories China Picture Stories India Picture Stories Italian Picture Stories Japan Picture Stories Latin America Picture Stories Little Neighbours Picture Stories Negro Picture Stories Playing Together Picture Stories Young Americans Picture Stories. Mothers who are looking for bed-time stories for little folks will find some interesting suggestions in this series. 4. Picture album possibilities. Time—Sunday afternoons, rainy days, or any other days on which boys and girls are looking for some- thing to do, and mothers are looking for pleasant and painless methods of teaching missionary lessons. Place—Any pleasant nook or corner indoors or out in which a table and the requisite number of chairs may be placed. Materials—Ordinary kodak albums which may be bought at ten and twenty-five-cent stores or book stores. If these are not available, cut plain, smooth MISSIONS IN THE HOME 51 wrapping paper in sheets of any desired size. Make a cover of cardboard and fasten together loosely with a shoestring. On the cover page paste or draw letters giving title, with some attractive picture. On inside sheets paste pictures from magazines or Picture Sheet Series. For twenty-five cents each, this series gives picture sheets on the following subjects: America at Home Boys and Girls of India Boys and Girls of Japan Child Life of the World Children of the City Chinese Snapshots Egypt and Modern Heroes of Bible Lands Eskimos, The Everyday India Italians, The Latin American Neighbours Life in Moslem Lands Mexicans in the United States Missionary at Work, The Negro Neighbours Orientals in the United States Work around the World 5. The pictures on these sheets may be made into most attractive charts to be presented to the Sunday- school or Missionary Society. 6. Post-cards of scenes and people in mission lands may be obtained from denominational mission boards. They offer possibilities for post-card albums. Many homes have post-card projectors and the boys and girls Notr.—All of the pictures mentioned may be secured from denominational boards. 52 MISSIONARY METHODS © take turns at being audience and speaker as the post- cards are projected on the wall. A favourite plan is to give each child of the family and any guests who may be invited, a post-card to study. Then a com- posite lecture is delivered, each one taking two min- utes to explain the card assigned. 7. A number of homes have balopticons or stereop- ticons which make possible many delightful missionary evenings at home with pictures. The various denomi- national and interdenominational agencies rent sets of slides, the rentals ranging from fifty cents to three dol- lars. The making of slides is an art of never-ending fascination to young people of artistic tendencies. During the war days Mr. A. K. Gould tried a clever plan for showing stereopticon pictures to soldiers who had to lie flat on their backs; by turning his machine on end he projected the pictures on the ceiling, so they were perfectly clear to his patients. For the folks who have stereopticons available for home or hospital use here is a delightful suggestion for entertaining shut-ins. 8. A Children-of-All-Nations frieze may help to lay the foundations for ‘“ the international mind.” Chil- dren love to decorate their rooms. For a play-room or a bed-room have them make an international frieze. On a width of buff paper or cambric around the wall let them paste cut-out pictures of children of various lands. A beginning may be made with the picture sheets mentioned above, but additions should be made from time to time of pictures which the children collect from many sources. The frieze should grow from day to day rather than be completed immediately. MISSIONS IN THE HOME 58 9. Missionaries in many stations are asking for pic- tures of various kinds. Some can use to good advan- tage post-cards that have been mailed if they are pasted together back to back. Others want post-cards with blank paper pasted over the address so they can print a verse in the native language on the blank. Still others would like to have cut-out pictures pasted on white sheets. Find out from your board or from the Department for the Utilization of Surplus Material of the World’s Sunday School Association (Metropolitan Tower, New York City), just what the needs along this line are, and help your children and their friends to supply them. An International Cabinet ‘“‘ Never,” said a well-known missionary leader, “ shall I forget the thrill attending the ceremony of the opening of Mother’s treasure trunk. It was no ordinary trunk. As I saw it in later years divested of its magic contents I could scarcely believe even then that it was made of ordinary wood and metal bands. As we chil- dren knew it, it was a marvellous treasure house around which we gathered, wide-eyed and expectant, as Mother again and again drew from its depths wondertul treas- ures from lands afar.” It is not difficult to have an international cabinet for which members of the family may be collecting inter- esting and valuable additions, and around which never- to-be-forgotten stories will centre. From mission boards, from stores, and from friends of other lands, many things illustrative of life and customs in mission lands may be secured. Boys and girls are interested 54 MISSIONARY METHODS in collecting stamps, coins and pictures from foreign countries. It is easy now to get tiny flags of all nations, and an international cabinet or museum in which all the family have part is a possibility within reach. In its innermost recesses, to be opened on Sundays or re- served for other special occasions, may be some of the things about which mother or father can tell special stories. Painless Missionary Instruction It is quite possible for boys and girls to learn lessons of world friendship while they play. A director of boys’ work said recently that the only way he had been able to establish a real admiration and friendship in the hearts of the boys of his city for the Chinese boys, was through a game. His boys were tired of all the games he had taught them. “‘ Aw, think up a new one. We're tired of the same old games,” said one of them. “ Ever play Skinning the Snake? ” asked the leader. “‘ Nope,” responded the boy eagerly, “‘ let’s have it.” “It’s a game the Chinese boys invented,”’ said the director. The boy’s interest lagged. “‘ Well, I guess there’s nothing to it, then.”’ “Try it and see,” challenged the director. ‘‘ These Chinese fellows discovered a number of interesting things along about the time our ancestors were painted savages, eating their neighbours for pastime.” Soon the boys were deep in the intricacies of Skin- ning the Snake. ‘“‘ Those Chinese chaps must have some brains, after all,” they agreed with enthusiasm. MISSIONS IN THE HOME 55 That was the beginning of a recognition of China never before conceded by that group of boys. The recognition developed into a real friendship for the Chinese boys. Mothers and teachers will get much help from the book, Children at Play in Many Lands. GAMES FOR SUNDAY AFTERNOONS “How we used to love Sunday at home! ” said a prominent missionary leader. ‘‘ My mother had no books on How to Make Home Pleasant, but in some way she always had some special attraction for Sunday afternoon and, without being painfully conscious of the fact that we were being made to do certain things and held back from doing certain other things, we memor- ized Bible verses, learned missionary facts, and stored our minds with information that remains with us until this day.” Here are some of the missionary games this leader suggests: 1. Name the Missionary—Two captains choose their teams. The opposing teams face each other seated in line. Each captain leads off by giving the name of a missionary and the country to which he or she went. Then the members of each team follow on. The first person who is unable to give name and country of a missionary not yet given has to go over to the other side. The game continues until one side is broken up or until no one can name another missionary, in which case the side having the largest number at that time is declared winner. 2. Find His Country—Every contestant is given an outline map of the world. These may be made at home 56 : MISSIONARY METHODS or bought from bookstores or mission boards. When the maps are in place on the tables or rugs before the children, each one is given from twelve to twenty large pins to which are attached little white paper flags. On each flag is printed the name of some missionary. The purpose of the game is to place the flag on the country to which the missionary went. All contestants must have the same missionaries. The one who places all correctly in the shortest time, wins. 3. Mixed Sentences—Prepare as many sets of twelve sentences each containing a definite piece of informa- tion about something some missionary said or did, or a fact about some mission field, as there are contestants. Write or print these on slips of paper or cardboard. Then cut them in two so that the subject is separated from the predicate. Mix all the sentences of each set together and give to each contestant in a box. The one who first arranges the twelves sentences correctly is declared winner. 4. Who Am I?—Pin on the back of each contestant the name of some missionary. Contestants may ask questions of each other or of a group of “‘ judges ” who are seated around the room, such as ‘“‘ To what country did I go? ” “ Am [I still alive? ” “‘ What great work did I do?” The first one who, from the answers given, guesses his own identity, sits down, and so on in order until all discover who they are. 5. Dinner Guests—‘ I was in a home recently,” said a missionary, ‘‘ in which at dinner each child imperson- ated some missionary. Each one had been reading up on his missionary and in the lively conversation told MISSIONS IN THE HOME 57 about ‘my station’ and ‘my work’ with all the zest of the original.” At another dinner party in a home in which there were a number of children, large and small, and several guests, each one dressed in costume of some mission land. There was great interest and excitement in the study and research necessary to develop the costumes and learn something of the customs, and the result was a delightful evening. A Back Yard Course—“ Some of the richest mem- ories of my life are staged in our old back yard,” said a great missionary. ‘‘ There it was that we played all the stories we loved best from Robinson Crusoe to David Livingstone.”” The back yard furnishes an excellent opportunity for impersonations and plays. The jour- neys and lives of various missionaries can there be made very real to the children. Sand tables for the little folks may be used either in-doors or out, clothes pins dressed in crepe paper may be made into people of different lands, Japanese houses made of corrugated paper, while branches with bits of pink and green paper fastened to them make beautiful cherry blossoms. An Eskimo scene may be worked out with cotton for snow while the dogs may be modelled from plasticene or from the clay that may be near at hand. Almost every story that is told may be worked out by the children. JUDGED BY WHAT THEY READ ‘“‘ Show me what a man reads and I can show you what manner of man he is,” might be written prophet- ically, “ Show me what a boy reads and I can forecast for you what manner of man he will become.” 58 MISSIONARY METHODS Cyrus Hamlin, the great founder of Robert College, bore testimony in his later years to the fact that he thought he had dropped himself into the missionary contribution box the day his now world-famous seven cents which he had intended to spend for ginger-bread went into that box, but he always added in telling the story that the two missionary magazines on his mother’s table were the agencies through which he be- came acquainted with the boys and girls of non- Christian lands. On the library table, or on the table in mother’s room, or in the children’s room, let. us place our mis- sionary magazines. David Livingstone was one of the many missionaries who attributed to the books he read at home a large share in influencing his missionary determination. In those days it was not easy to find interesting books for young people. Now we have a wealth of material. Among the books for the younger children are: African Adventurers, by Jean Kenyon Mackenzie. Friends of Ours, Elizabeth Colson. The Honourable Crimson Tree, Anita B. Ferris. Stories of Brotherhood, Harold B. Hunting. Livingstone Hero Stories, Susan Mendenhall. Primary Stories, Margaret Applegarth- Among the books that are sure to interest the boys and girls of the intermediate grades are those of the Pathfinder Series. Livingstone the Pathfinder, Basil Matthews. Making Life Count, Eugene C. Foster. Martin of Mansfield, Margaret R. Seebach. MISSIONS IN THE HOME 59 Uganda’s White Man of Work, Sophia Lyon Fahs. Winning the Oregon Country, John T. Faris. For the young people in their later teens and early twenties have been prepared: Ann of Ava, Ethel Daniels Hubbard. Makers of South America, Margarette Daniels. Masoud the Bedouin, Mrs. Alfreda Post Carhart. Ministers of Mercy, James H. Franklin. The Moffats, Ethel Daniels Hubbard. Servants of the King, Robert E. Speer. If it is not possible to add these books to the home library they may be secured through the city or Sunday-school library. If they are not among the books listed, sufficiently urgent and oft-repeated re- quests may result in their being added. Since “internationalism” is a household word in this day, an International Reading Course may be made an interesting feature of the home reading plans for this year. Select books suitable for each member of the family—one in each of a given number of coun- tries. Keep score of the progress in any way that will call forth most interest. Certain books may be desig- nated to be read aloud. Tell Missionary Stories The little folks who cannot read and some who can will listen eagerly to missionary stories which may be gleaned from any of the books named above, or from the Picture Story series or from the many books now on sale at denominational headquarters. Many wise mothers preserve the stories they collect from various sources in a loose-leaf note-book with large rings. 60 MISSIONARY METHODS Giving Money and Service The real headquarters for the campaigns that furnish the millions of dollars needed for the missionary enter- prise are at mother’s knee. A man who has given hun- dreds of thousands of dollars for missions replied when he was asked how it happened that he made such large gifts: “Tt didn’t happen at all. When I was a little boy my mother taught me to set aside for the Lord’s treas- ury a certain part of all the money I had. I simply have more money now than I did then.” It is not “ frenzied finance,” but the careful home training in stewardship that will fill missionary treasuries. In the home of one of our great missionary leaders there is a strong box known as the Lord’s treasury. Into that box father, mother and the children put at least one-tenth of the money that comes into their hands. From there the church envelopes are filled on Sunday mornings with amounts agreed upon in council for the gift of each member of the family. Special offerings also go into this box. Frequently the family agree together that they will do without something they had expected to have in order to make a gift for some special object. The family all discuss together the purposes for which the “ Lord’s money ”’ shall be used, and there is a deep and abiding interest in the work in which they have part. In this home the giving is regular and systematic. It is sacrificial, for the members of the family individually and collectively deny themselves many things in order to make larger MISSIONS IN THE HOME 61 gifts, with a spirit that is as fine and as contagious as was the spirit of “‘ meatless days.” Of equal importance is training for giving of time and service. The things we do are not only the result of our training but a most important part of that training. The book, “ Things to Make,” gives many suggestions for things that may be made by children at home for gifts to children in hospitals, homes, or mission stations. The various holiday sea- sons may easily be made opportunities for service to others. Over All, Prayer John G. Paton, the hero of the New Hebrides, said that even as an old man he recalled the earnest fervour of the prayers he heard his father and mother make for those who had never heard the message of a Sav- iour’s love and for the young people who might go as messengers. It was said of the mother of Jacob Chamberlain that through her prayers and personal influence thirteen members of her family went to mission fields. Dr. and Mrs. John Scudder in their home in India prayed for their children, “ Not Christians only, dear Lord, but missionaries everyone if it be Thy will,” and all of their children save one who died while he was in col- lege went back to the mission field. The history of missions is the history of family altars. Back of St. Augustine was Monica, his mother, praying God to call her son. Ere Bartholomew Ziegen- balg, the first Protestant foreign missionary, set sail for India, his mother on her death-bed kept the habit of 62 MISSIONARY METHODS her life when she placed in his hands a Bible with the prayer that it might guide his steps. Christian Frederick Schwartz, another princely mis- sionary of India, gave testimony that his mother’s and father’s prayers had led him from the ways of reck- lessness and sin into ways of Christian service. From the homes in which prayer is wont to be made, there are going out missionaries and missionary sup- porters who are giving their lives to answering their own prayers and the prayers of their fathers and mothers. IV SOUL-WINNING METHODS ISSIONARY zeal that is for export trade M only is but a thin veneer. Underneath it lies solid indifference to the souls of men. Neither the gift of money for missions, nor the gift of days spent in creating missionary interest and directing missionary enterprise can release any of us from per- sonal responsibility for leading souls to Jesus Christ. The evidence of the genuineness of Andrew’s own - conversion is recorded in “ He findeth first his own brother Simon—he brought him to Jesus.” In one verse of the record of the Apostle John we read that Jesus “ findeth Philip.” In the next verse, “ Philip findeth Nathaniel.” Unless we are finding men and leading them to Christ, even as we plan missionary programs and pro- ject missionary advance, we are indeed become as “‘ sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.” There is some- thing of hollowness in the intense missionary fervour which dictates outlines on ‘‘ World Evangelization ”’ to a stenographer who is not a Christian and who has never heard a word of interest in her personal salvation from the lips that dictate missionary plans and outlines to her each day. There is the dull thud of the counterfeit when falls on our ears the address of the missionary speaker who 63 64 MISSIONARY METHODS for years has not led one soul to Christ through per- sonal work. Our Lord laid plans for world-wide evangelization but He never missed an opportunity to win an individ- ual. It is often easier to speak to an audience of thou- sands than to speak to our next door neighbour. It may be more difficult to win the cook in our own kitchen than to prepare an address on ‘“‘ Winning the Dark Continent for Christ,” but the work of individual soul-winning is the preferred method of work that God gives to every one of us. No executive responsibility, no press of platform engagements can release any one of us from the obligation of personal work to bring men and women to Christ. THE AWAKENING OF ONE SOCIETY There was a certain missionary society which had always laboured under the delusion that its only obli- gation was to send the Gospel, by representatives whom it carefully chose and commissioned, to masses of peo- ple who lived far away in the darkness of non-Christian lands. One day a new member came into the society. She was intensely interested in the far away people, but she was equally interested in those just around the corner. Soul-winning, regardless of geography, was her main concern in life. She was amazed to see a missionary society that seemed to think its entire responsibility could be met by the payment of monthly dues. Very quietly, tactfully and lovingly she spoke of the personal responsibility and opportunity for pointing the way of salvation to those near by. SOUL-WINNING METHODS 65 The discussion was taken up with interest. Three possibilities were suggested. 1. Personal conversation with friends or neighbours or any one with whom the members had contacts. 2. An effort on the part of every member of the mis- sionary society to fill the vacant pews at the Sunday services by inviting unsaved friends and acquaintances to come with them to the church. 3. A search for boys and girls who were growing up without any religious training who might be brought into a catechetical class and there led to make an in- telligent decision for Christ. Some members of that society had never led a soul to Christ. They fairly gasped at the thought of their personal responsibility, but they went to work, begin- ning first of all with prayer. Soon the church services began to show an increase in interest and attendance. Members were there and with them were their friends. No one can remain persistently indifferent to a friend’s genuine, continued interest in his soul. Men and women who were not Christians responded to the loving concern of their friends. Some of them felt they could not present the plan of salvation as they would like to, but realized their opportunity to interest their friends in attending the church services where the Gospel was preached. The pastor’s catechetical class, which had formerly been made up of children of the congregation only, opened wide its doors to other children who came in re- sponse to the invitation of the mothers of their little 66 MISSIONARY METHODS friends and acquaintances. Even the boys and girls began to look around to find children who were not in any church and to invite them to come with them. On Easter Sunday when the confirmation class was received, one woman turned to her friend. ‘Tears rolled down her cheeks while happiness shone on her face. ‘“ Do you see that fine young fellow standing by my son? He is the first soul I have ever brought to my Lord though I’ve been a Christian for many years. When I began to look for some one I could bring, I thought of him. He was not in any church and was drifting. I talked with him and invited him to come with my boy, and study for himself God’s way of sal- vation. I’m so happy that he is coming into the church today.” That young man is now a religious leader whose helpful influence over boys cannot be estimated. Thus a certain missionary society began to do per- sonal soul-winning work at home as well as to pay dues to send missionaries to win souls in lands far away. EVANGELISM PLUS INSTRUCTION About thirty-five years ago, a young minister faced a problem. He longed above all things to bring souls to Christ. He had been a keen observer of the methods of other men. He had seen evangelists sweep multitudes off their feet with high-pressure methods. He had watched men and women and even children go up to shake the hands of the evangelist and then go home as if that ended the whole matter. He saw them left, without training or instruction, to “ backslide ” SOUL-WINNING METHODS 67 until another evangelist of a later day came into the community to revive them again. On the other hand he noted the methods of some of the ministers of other churches, who gave themselves to systematic teaching and preaching. They spent their energies in minister- ing to the professed Christians in their congregations and in training the children of their own members. The young minister shook his head. On the one hand he felt that in some of the intensely evangelistic churches when the people came to seek Christ, the essential things were often omitted because many who came earnestly seeking were turned away with no in- struction and no provision made for their growth in grace. On the other hand, the more conservative churches seemed often to be satisfied with efforts to keep the truth in their own small circle and apparently felt little responsibility for the lost outside of that circle. The young pastor was conservative in his faith, but he was also a true evangelist and longed to bring souls to Christ. He also believed with all his heart in the catechetical class which trained Christians for intelli- gent church membership. At the same time he la- mented the limitations of the catechetical class which confined its work almost exclusively to the children of the church. The young minister faced his problem and his per- plexity with prayer until he found the way out. He resolved that in every sermon he would make a plea for men to come to Christ and to learn His plan of salvation. In addition to his catechetical class for the * 68 MISSIONARY METHODS children of the church, he began a class for adults. In answer to his first plea, fourteen men and women ex- pressed a wish to learn more of the plan of salvation, and came to him for instruction. The youngest of the fourteen was sixty-five years old. All of them were later received into the church. For thirty-five years that pastor has been a true evangelist, pleading with men to accept Christ and then gathering them into training classes that they may learn the plan of salvation, and the teachings of our Lord so understandingly that they may be truly faith- ful until death. In Mansfield, Ohio, a congregation of 2,000 was built up by this faithful minister’s plan of evangelism and catechization. Several years ago, he was called to Wicker Park Lutheran Church, Chicago, when it was regarded as a dying church in the midst of a foreign community. Today every seat is taken at the services and souls are being brought to Christ. So has Dr. S. P. Long found a way to combine the enthusiasm of the ardent evangelist with the earnest teaching of the faithful catechist to win souls to Christ. The Word That Shall Not Return Void We are slow to realize the opportunity of leading others to Christ by influencing them to come with us to hear the Gospel preached. Neither spectacular meth- ods nor sensational preaching is required to fill the empty pews of churches. If every church member would constantly and diligently do personal work in bringing in those who are outside, our churches would be filled. SOUL-WINNING METHODS 69 A humble labourer who could neither read nor write, became a Christian after he had passed middle life. Immediately he began to seek earnestly to bring other men to Christ. First in his own family, he urged his son-in-law who was not a Christian to come with him to church. Then he went after his friends. One by one he brought them to church. Quietly and per- sistently he worked. People who had lived in the community many years, to whom no one had ever spoken of spiritual things, were surprised to have this illiterate man come to them with simple earnestness to urge them to accept the Christ and to come to church. Again and again he took his pastor aside and said, “I wish you’d go to see Mr. ; I’ve been talking to him but you know I can’t talk as you can. He’s ready for you now.” In the two years following his own conversion, this humble labourer led more people into church attend- ance and church membership than all others of the congregation together. The members of a men’s Bible class in a south- ern city decided to do soul-winning work by talk- ing with men personally and by following up their conversations with an invitation to the church ser- vices. They spent every Friday evening in calling on their friends at their homes or meeting them at clubs and hotels, or wherever they could be found. The empty pews of the church began to be filled. The pastor, realizing that there were souls there searching for the light and men praying that their friends might be saved, preached less of literature and 70 MISSIONARY METHODS politics and more of Jesus Christ and salvation. “ And there were added to the church daily those that were being saved.” ARE WE OUR NEIGHBOUR’S KEEPER? The young minister’s wife smiled indulgently at her venerable father as he lifted his hat from his white head and stopped to say ‘Good morning” to the neighbour who passed them in the hall. Father had never lived in a city apartment. In his little town everybody spoke to everybody else and such a dis- courtesy as not calling on one’s next-door neighbour was not to be thought of. ‘One of your neighbours?” he inquired interestedly. “IT suppose so,” she added. ‘‘So many new people moved in last September, I don’t know them all.” “‘ Haven’t you been to see them? ” ‘““No, Father. I haven’t had time,” she added with a sudden realization of unneighbourliness. “‘ It’s dif- ferent in the city, you know. People seldom know who their next-door neighbour is.” “‘ How do you know whether or not they are Chris- tians? ” he asked simply. The minister’s wife looked up with a start. She had never given a thought to whether or not her neighbours were Christians. She had the responsibilities of her husband’s parish and the presidency of the missionary society. Then, too, it was not customary in city apart- ments for people to call to find out whether or not their neighbours were Christians. Nevertheless, the ques- tion lingered in her mind. The next day she found her father talking with the janitor. The dear old man SOUL-WINNING METHODS 71 seemed to have no difficulty in finding a point of con- tact with anyone. “Who is the neighbour who lives just below you on the first floor? ” he asked when he came in later. “A retired army officer and his wife,’ said the daughter, ‘“‘ and I do know,” she added proudly, “ that they are Episcopalians.” ‘“1’m glad you found that out,” he said as he started out to walk. When he came back, he was walking be- side the Colonel. They talked a few moments at the entrance. Then her father shook hands as if he were taking leave of an old friend. “Well, I see you met the Colonel,” said his cai as she took his hat and coat. “Yes,” said he, “‘ but you were mistaken. His wife is an Episcopalian, but the Colonel does not belong to any church. He has never accepted Christ. You know he cannot be saved just because his wife is a church member. I know you are busy, Daughter, but I can’t help feeling that God will hold you responsible for not thinking of your neighbours and for not praying for them and talking with them about the Saviour.” The daughter put her arm around her father and kissed his forehead. ‘It’s true,” said she. ‘I never realized it before.”’ That night when the minister came in his wife poured out the whole story to him. ‘“‘T am ashamed of myself,” she said. ‘“‘ I’ve been so busy with my round of duties and organizations that I haven’t said one word to an unsaved soul for months. I thought father was queer and old-fashioned. I was even afraid the neighbours would laugh at him and. 72 MISSIONARY METHODS give him a discourteous answer, but, in the few days he’s been here, he’s made friends with everybody and he’s made me think as I never thought before of my personal responsibility.” The next day the minister and his wife called on the Colonel and his wife. The army man’s heart was un- usually tender, for his wife was very ill. It was easier than they thought to talk of spiritual things. He seemed almost persuaded to accept Christ. Eagerly the minister’s wife called up the rector of the church to which the Colonel’s wife belonged. “Won't you talk with Colonel ,” she said. ‘'We’ve been talking to him and I think he will become a Christian.” She heard a deep sigh at the other end of the phone. “Of course, I will,” said the rector, “ but I am not very hopeful. The Colonel is a military man and he is as hard as nails. The last time I gave his wife com- munion he got up and left the room.” “Tt is different now,” said the minister’s wife. ‘‘ He will see you.”’ A few weeks later the Colonel was received into the church and became an earnest, faithful member. The Personal Workers’ League A missionary society may do a quietly effective ser- vice by enlisting a number of personal workers who will be ready at any service to talk with those who want to make further inquiry and to receive instruc- tion. A conservative pastor of one of the most con- | servative denominations said: “I have resolved that I will never preach a sermon SOUL-WINNING METHODS 73 without holding up Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the world so clearly that no man who has come to my church to find Him, shall go away disappointed.” An eloquent minister preached one Sunday on “‘ The Power of the Cross.” A prominent man who heard him afterwards said to him: “ Doctor, I was in a cer- tain city and heard you preach last Sunday. I was greatly moved by your sermon. But, if-you will permit me, I would like to offer a criticism. I am a business man at the head of a large concern. We send out many salesmen. If one of my salesmen went into a prospec- tive customer’s place of business, talked as convinc- ingly for one hour as you did last Sunday about the fine quality of our goods, and then walked out without trying to get an order, we would discharge him.” Said that minister, “I was rebuked. The layman was right. I was pleading for a verdict, but sought no announcement of it. I was selling goods, but did not try to get an order.” If at the close of every service a minister can an- nounce that there is some one ready to see and talk with those who want further instruction and some of the laymen and women of his congregation are ready to make the most of such opportunities, many souls may be reached who otherwise would simply wait for a more convenient season. OPPORTUNITY IN PERSONAL LETTERS Many a soul has been won through the letter of an earnest friend. There are workers who are always alert to catch the least suggestion of opportunity in a personal letter. They note the birthdays of unsaved 74: MISSIONARY METHODS friends, and on that day, when hearts are especially tender, they send a letter lovingly urging acceptance of Christ. A thoughtful pastor wrote a wayward son on the anniversary of his mother’s death. When a young couple returned home from their honeymoon a special delivery letter was put in their hands on the first night in their new home. It was the earnest plea of a distant friend, that they begin their life together and the establishment of their home by accepting Jesus Christ as their Saviour. A student, on his graduation day, received a letter from a former Sunday-school teacher pleading with him to make that day really the commencement of life as an avowed follower of Jesus Christ. Phillips Brooks led many souls to Christ through letters that he wrote under various circumstances. J. R. Miller, of Philadelphia, used every possible contact as an opening for sending letters of loving sympathy and earnest entreaty. Surely every Chris- tian worker should sit down quietly at frequent inter- vals to think over the friends and acquaintances who might be won through letters. MAKING OPPORTUNITY Charles Gallaudet Trumbull, in his book, Taking Men Alive, gives several illustrations of men who knew how to make the most of seemingly slight opportuni- ties for speaking with others: “ At one time Bishop C. C. McCabe was riding in a strange city. ‘When the hackman got down from his box and opened the door to let me out,’ said he, ‘I paid him, SOUL-WINNING METHODS 75 and grasping his hand said ‘‘ Good-night, I hope to meet you again in glory.” I then went into the house, met my host, and retired. About midnight my host knocked at my door and said: ‘‘ Chaplain, that hackman has come back and says he has got to see you tonight.”’ When the broad-shouldered, rough-looking man, with whip in hand was shown to the room, the tears rolling down his cheeks like rain, he said, “‘ Tf I meet you in glory, I have got to turn around. I have come to ask you to pray with me.” ’ ” John B. Gough said of the one loving word of Joel Stratton that won him: ‘“ My friend, it may be a small matter for you to speak the one word for Christ that wins a needy soul—a small matter to you, but it is everything to him.” W. C. Pearce, of the World’s Sunday School Associ- ation, is one of the men who knows how to make the most of the opportunities that seem slight. He said of one experience: | “T took the train at the Lake Shore depot, Chicago, for a town in northern Indiana. I was very tired and took a seat in the sleeper and almost before we left Chicago I was asleep. I had instructed the porter to waken me before I reached my destination; accordingly, as we neared the end of the journey, he came in and aroused me. A few minutes later he returned to brush my clothes and help me with my baggage. “As he was brushing me off I remarked: ‘ My journey ends before yours today, doesn’t it?’ “* Yes, suh,’ was the answer. ***T wonder which of us will come to the end of the journey of life first? ’ ““*T don’t know, suh, I don’t like to think about dat, suh.’ 76 MISSIONARY METHODS “* Well,’ said I, ‘it doesn’t matter much if one has a through ticket.’ “The man looked puzzled, and said, ‘ I aan know what you mean, suh.’ | pone that I had secured a ticket at Chicago, which was nothing more nor less than a promise of a ride, properly signed by the railroad officials. Then I pulled from my pocket a small copy of the Bible, and spoke of Christ’s free offer of salvation, quoting some one of the promises, and explained that this promise was signed and sealed by the death of Jesus Christ, and that I had ac- cepted that promise and was trusting fully to end the journey right. ‘“‘ With a very happy face, which I shall never forget, he responded, ‘ Bless de Lawd, I believe dat.’ He added, ‘I’ve been porter for yea’s, but you are de fust gen’leman dat ever spoke to me ’bout Jesus Christ.’ ” When Dr. Henry Clay Trumbull was.seventy years of age, he had made individual soul-winning his daily work for fifty years until others said, ‘“ It is easy for him. It has become his second nature.” Of himself he said: “ From nearly half a century of such practice, as I have had opportunity day by day, I can say that I have spoken with thousands upon thousands on the subject of their spiri- tual welfare. Yet, so far from my becoming accustomed to © this matter, so that I can take hold of it as a matter of course, I find it as difficult to speak about it at the end of these years as at the beginning. Never to the present day can I speak to a single soul for Christ without being re- minded by Satan that I am in danger of harming the cause by introducing it just now. If there is one thing that Satan is sensitive about, it is the danger of a Christian’s harming the cause he loves by speaking of Christ to a needy soul. SOUL-WINNING METHODS 77 The Devil has more than once, or twice, or thrice, kept me from speaking on the subject by his sensitive pious caution, and he has tried a thousand times to do so. Therefore my experience leads me to suppose that he is urging other persons to try any method for souls except the best one.” V MISSIONARY EDUCATION THROUGH EAR-GATE ni OW long have you known it?” said a man H in heathen darkness to the missionary who came with the story of salvation. “All of my life,” was the answer. With impassioned accusation the man, who had grown old in the worship of false gods, cried out: “Then why didn’t you tell me sooner? My life is almost over now. If I had only known such a God as this I would have served Him all the days of my life.” “Why didn’t you make that address years ago? ” said a woman to a speaker at a great missionary mass meeting last year. ‘‘ If my daughter had only heard an address like that when she was a girl! She has given her life to other work now, but if she had ever heard there were such opportunities for women on the mission fields she would without doubt have chosen that service.” Along with the accusations of those in heathen dark- ness who have given their lives to the service of false gods because we have never told them of the only true God, comes also the accusation of many who know the Lord but who have never heard of the great needs and matchless opportunities of the mission fields of the world, and of the joy of missionary service. Women 78 MISSIONARY EDUCATION 79 there are, women of wonderful power, who are devoting their lives to things of little worth because they have never heard of the greatest work in the world; men who are giving great gifts of self and substance to things that are of only passing value, because they have not heard of the possibilities of enduring investments in life and in money on the mission fields; young people who would have given their lives in all the glory and strength of their youth to the greatest task that ever made a bid for young manhood and young womanhood; boys and girls who are having their ideas and ideals of life shaped without hearing aught of the supreme ser- vice to which Christ has called His Church and of the heroic courage with which great men and women have answered that call. How shall they hear? TALKING MISSIONS More influential in moulding public sentiment than are platform utterances or printed resolutions of al- legiance to the cause is spontaneous daily conversa- tion. When the fulness of our hearts expresses itself without any effort, when missions naturally becomes the main theme of our daily conversation, no protesta- tions of devotion are necessary to prove our loyalty to that cause. When missions just as naturally and un- consciously become a theme for monthly, quarterly or annual discussion only, according to due announce- ment, and the subject is not on our lips between these designated days and hours, we may boast, or protest, or deprecate, but no case of real devotion can be proven. We falk about the things in which we are 80 MISSIONARY METHODS really interested, and we interest people in the things about which we spontaneously talk. Let us éalk mis- sions. Let us recognize the value of plain, everyday conversation as a method of missionary work. If women as they met together talked of the great things that are being done and that need to be in the mission- ary work; if men in hotel lobbies, at the street corners, in their places of business spoke of the recent wonder- ful mass movements in India, of the marvellous changes in the new China, of the great possibilities in Japan, of the stupendous home mission problems in America, and the unparalleled opportunities for Christian stewards today in world-wide evangelization; if children as they played, gathered sometimes in groups eagerly to dis- cuss, as some children have done, the work they were doing for the children of the world; then indeed would the contagion of missionary interest soon be spread broadcast. Table Talk in Our Homes Some home-makers seem to know just how to give a constant missionary flavour to the conversation in their homes. Without announcing the subject on which they are about to speak, without forcing an entrance for their theme, without pious cant or Phariseeism, they just naturally talk of missions. The discussion of ath- letics seems to invite the recital of some incident in the life of one of the many missionaries who were famous athletes. Report of advance in school or college leads on to some wonderful new educational plans for China, or India, or Japan, or to the remarkable progress of Oriental students in America. No one feels that any MISSIONARY EDUCATION 81 foreign theme is being dragged into the conversation and that the speaker is now performing an unpleas- ant duty. A young minister who was graduated from a church college and from a theological seminary said the spon- taneous interest and the intense earnestness of the missionary conversations in a home in which he was a frequent guest interested him more deeply and person- ally in missions than did anything in his college or theological course. Let us talk missions in our homes. Let us entertain in our homes people who talk mis- sions, so that our children may hear what great things God has wrought. ‘Bishop Selwyn, as a guest in the home of Lady Pat- teson, talked missions with his arm around her little son ‘‘ Coley.”” No wonder John Coleridge Patteson followed the drift of that conversation until it led him to the South Sea Islands. A furloughed missionary walked home with a little girl from Sunday-school and talked with her about being a missionary. Today that little girl is reaching hundreds of the girls of Japan with the message of the Saviour’s love. ‘“‘T may not be a missionary myself,” said a fine high school boy to the mission secretary, who had thought it worth while to talk to a boy about how he could make his life count for most, “‘ but I have decided that if I do not go myself I will support a missionary.” Enter- taining missionary guests is a good investment for homes in which real missionary returns are desired. A guest sat at the table in the home of a Florida judge. She noticed an extra plate was laid. The next 82 MISSIONARY METHODS day a missionary visitor came and was given that plate. When the visitor went away the extra plate was laid again. Then the hostess explained that ever since she had had a home she had always laid an extra plate which she called the Lord’s plate, because she so longed to have in her home the messengers of the Cross, who were doing the Lord’s work. Gradually it became known that she was always ready to entertain the mis- sionary workers who came, and she testified that rich blessing had come to her home through their conversa- tions, their example and their prayers. The Jubilee story told by Mrs. Montgomery of one girl who could not go to the foreign field, but who talked missions at home is worthy of several re-tellings: “‘ She was just an ordinary girl of moderate gifts, living in an ordinary home in modest circumstances, and belonging to the plain variety of church in the ordinary condition of tepid convictions on missionary matters that seem to characterize the common type. What this girl did, any of us could do, if we tried. “* When she found that she could not be a foreign mission- ary she tried to see what she could do to help at home. She went to her pastor and got a list of all the women and girls in the church, with their addresses. There were 350 of them, but only fifty-eight belonged to the Missionary So- ciety. After districting the city and marking the addresses of every non-member by a pin in the map, she began her self-imposed task of calling on every one of them. Before the year was over she had made more than a thousand calls, had added about 300 members to the society and raised the contributions from less than $200 to $1,200. ‘When the girl was asked to tell about this in a meeting MISSIONARY EDUCATION 83 in her home city she was very unwilling to do so, but her shy, simple telling of the story will never be forgotten by those who heard her. In reply to a question from the audi- ence, how she alone had been able to do so much, she gave a recipe for Christian work that it would he hard to surpass: “¢¢J didn’t know very much,’ she said, ‘so I studied a good deal that I might have the facts to present. I knew that I did not have much tact, so I prayed that God would teach me what to say, and prepare the hearts of those to whom I went. I took leaflets and literature to leave with them so that they might know, too. I never scolded, and I always spoke of the love of Jesus.’ “‘ Study, prayer, information, good cheer, no faultfinding and the love of Jesus; could anything be better? ” INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURES Gone, let us hope, are the days when the whole mis- sionary effort of the pulpit was stored for once-a-year delivery in the “ annual missionary sermon.” May the same by-gone times rest the days when Sunday-school teachers felt they must wait until the quarterly mis- sionary lesson for any missionary teaching opportunity. Welcome the year whose calendar numbers fifty-two missionary Sundays. We are coming into. the day when pastors, who preach at Christmas-tide of the “glad tidings of great joy,” do not wait for a special ‘missionary service to suggest ‘‘ Which shall be to all people.”’ Coupled naturally with the Easter message, “ He is risen,” is the Easter commission, “‘ Go and tell.” An earnest missionary spirit can scarcely teach the les- son of our Lord’s ascension without some reference to the last commission on His heart, on His lips, before He went away into heaven. When preachers and teachers faithfully and constantly present the mission- 84 MISSIONARY METHODS ary interpretation of the Bible, then will cease the feel- ing of church members that missionary zeal is an optional attachment of Christianity, which may be screwed on periodically or left off permanently, if not considered desirable. The missionary association of some passages of Scripture may also come to mean much. Following the Twenty-third Psalm, as it is repeated in Sunday- school, with John 10:16—‘ Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold and one shepherd,” gives that Psalm a meaning that extends far beyond the personal pronoun on which we have dwelt. Psalm 62:5-8, which the relief party, sent to find Captain Allen Gardiner, saw painted on a rock in Terra del Fuego; Jeremiah 45:5, the verse which made a missionary instead of a lawyer of Henry Martyn; Psalm 107:14, the verse through which Hans Egede triumphed when great icebergs surrounded his ship, “The Hope”; Psalm 121, with which David Living- stone faced Africa; these are among the many passages which should have precious missionary associations to every Sunday-school scholar. MISSIONARY HYMNS Hymns are not only an expression of our spiritual life in praise and prayer, but are also a factor in moulding that life. The general state of missionary zeal in the seventeenth century is not only expressed but in a measure explained by some of the hymns sung in the churches of that day, one of which breathes this sentiment: MISSIONARY EDUCATION 85 “Go into all the world, the Lord of old did say. Now where He hath placed thee, There He would have thee stay.” Small wonder that volunteers for missionary service did not pour forth from churches in which this was a favourite selection. On the other hand, a man who became an active supporter of missionary enterprise said that a Sunday-school he joined literally sang mis- sions into him. Let our Sunday-schools and congre- gations hear missionary hymns. Let those hymns be thoughtfully selected to fit the occasion. Who can esti- mate the influence of ‘‘ Who follows in their train? ” as those words have been sung by multiplied thousands of young people at life work meetings after their hearts have burned within them as they heard of the heroic sacrifice of great missionaries? On the other hand, the effect of inappropriate hymns is just as pronounced. One of the secretaries of the Laymen’s Missionary Movement testifies that harder to combat than the downright opposition of his enemies, the missionary critics, is the soothing ministry of his friends, the church choirs, who elect so frequently to follow his most impassioned appeals for greater activity in mis- sionary work with “ Come Unto Me and I Will Give You Rest.” There are missionary meetings in which this beautiful hymn would be appropriate, as for ex- ample, after the story of Chundra Lela’s long search for God and for peace; or it would be most effective following the telling of the perversion of this Scripture on the stone wall of that ancient church in Cuzco, where the inscription reads, ‘“‘ Come unto Mary, all ye 86 MISSIONARY METHODS that labour,” etc., but it is not the selection to follow a stirring address proposing great advance. Missionary hymns should be selected and studied as carefully as any other part of the program. The fre- quency with which “ Take my life and let it be” is announced, “omitting the fourth stanza,” and “O Zion, Haste,” “omitting the third stanza,” suggests that many leaders do not devote much study to the meaning of the hymns to be sung. THE INFLUENCE OF MISSIONARY STORIES Among the oft-repeated words that give us an in- sight into our Master’s teaching methods are these: ‘““And he spake to them a parable.” One of His fa- vourite methods was by stories. G. Stanley Hall said, ‘Let me tell the stories of a nation and I care not who writes the text-books,” and Kate Douglas Wiggin records that for power and influence she would “ rather be the children’s story-teller than the queen’s favourite or the king’s counsellor.” Truly those who tell mis- sionary stories may equal in influence those who write mission text-books, and stand alongside the great mis- sionary statesmen who are shaping the missionary attitude of nations. There are many times and places in which mission- ary stories may find a welcome, if good story-tellers will busy themselves to seek out these times and places. The Sunday-school offers splendid opportunities for missionary stories to be told in illustration of the lesson in class or occasionally to the whole school or depart- ment in five or ten minutes allowed for that purpose. Wonders in story-telling can be wrought in five-minute MISSIONARY EDUCATION 87 periods when speakers learn to get immediately to “Once upon a time” without losing a moment in re- gretting that the “time allotted is so brief,’ and in outlining what they would like to do if they only had more time. At children’s and young people’s meetings it is often possible to secure a really good story-teller to tell a missionary story each week or each month. One pro- fessional story-teller gladly consented to tell missionary stories for one week at a Chautauqua story hour. Often a suggestion and some material furnished are all that are needed to have missionary stories included in the program for story hour at libraries and schools. Almost any church has young people who would be- come good story-tellers if they were given the course provided in the missionary summer schools and conferences. The plan of an occasional missionary story hour on Sunday afternoons has been successfully tried in some towns and cities. One woman who tried it writes: ‘¢ All the children of the city were invited to come to a missionary story hour on Saturday afternoon in one of our large auditoriums. Clever newspaper notices had interested both parents and children for several days previous. The story hour had also been an- nounced in the different Sunday-schools. The audi- torium was packed with eager boys and girls and interested fathers and mothers here and there. There was no speechmaking, no tagging on of morals or of abstract precepts—just stories and stories, and then more stories, with some hymns in between, directed by 88 MISSIONARY METHODS the musical director of city schools. The young listen- ers were thrilled by Livingstone’s encounter with the lion and openly applauded Queen Kapiolani’s defiance of the fire goddess, Pelee. The hour passed on wings and there was an insistent demand for more.” Some Stories to Tell and Where to Find Them 1. A World’s Champion Cyclist Who Became a Mission- ary. (See lon Keith-Falconer in “ Servants of the King,” by Robert E. Speer.) 2. An Iowa Girl’s Sacrifice. (See Eleanor Chestnut in “ Servants of the King,” by Robert E. Speer.) 3. Livingstone and the Lion and Other Livingstone Stories. (See Livingstone “ Hero Stories,’ by Susan Mendenhall.) 4. How Pulling Teeth Opened Formosa to the Gospel. (See “ Black Bearded Barbarian,” by Keith.) 5. When Tommy Was the Foreigner. (See page 15, “ Missionary Program Material,” by Anita B. Faris.) 6. Tamate the Brave Missionary to New Guinea. (See page 74, “ Missionary Program Material.’’) 7. Marcus Whitman’s Ride. (See “ Winning the Ore- gon Country,” by John T. Faris.) . 8. On the Way to Hampton. (See “Up from Slav- ery,” by Booker T. Washington.) 9. In a Burmese Prison. (See “ Aun of Ava,’ by E. D. Hubbard.) Six Missionary Bible Stories An Early Missionary to a Leper.—II Kings, 5. The Famine in Samaria.—II Kings, 7. Jonah Refusing a Missionary Call.—Jonah. Three Hebrews Who Would Not Bow Down to an Idol of Gold.—Daniel, 3. The God That Answered by Fire.—I Kings, 18. The Great Commission.—Matthew, 28. MISSIONARY EDUCATION 89 ADDRESSES BY MISSIONARIES We are so accustomed to seeing this heading in all outlines on policies for missionary education that we pass it by with a friendly nod of recognition. As a matter of fact, we know that talks and addresses by missionaries are valuable and we vaguely plan to have them at some convenient season when some mission- aries happen along, but few churches and Sunday- schools make definite arrangement for a number of missionary addresses each year. Every board has missionaries on furlough and is glad to consider invita- tions for them to visit the churches. The missionary zeal of many congregations dates back to the visit and address of some missionary. Churches which have a large missionary program are usually those which add constant fuel to keep the fires of their missionary en- thusiasm burning, by arranging for as continuous a line of visitors from the field as possible. Even after we have arranged for an adequate presen- tation of missions in our churches, we must recognize the fact that there are many who are not going to come to the duly advertised ‘“‘ Usual Missionary Meet- ing” for their first installment in missionary interest. How shall they hear? SUCCESSFULLY TRIED PLANS Parlour Meetings —Mohammed’s method of dealing with the mountain which did not arise and come to him should have place in our methods of reaching people with missionary messages today. If the audience you wish to reach will not come to you, arise and go to 90 MISSIONARY METHODS your audience. One of the most active workers for the lepers of the world first heard the call to that work in a parlour meeting in her own home. At another meet- ing in a hotel parlour one of the great outstanding men on the foreign mission field spoke. At the close of that meeting a woman present asked that the privilege of assuming his entire support in his missionary work might be hers. Some of the most fruitful meetings at summer conferences have been par- lour meetings at hotels which reached guests, many of whom did not get to the auditorium. Our plans “ that they may hear” should go beyond the little circle of the “ faithful few,” who attend the regular meetings. The woman who is a great society leader might become a great missionary leader if only she heard a convincing call to that service; the man who is a business success might become a missionary success if he heard in as compelling a way of missionary opportunities; the young people who are the sparkle and the life of so- ciety might become the life of the missionary society if we could reach them with an. adequate missionary message. A woman of wealth and culture and social position had a charming studio, made especially fascinating by the curios from many lands which filled its nooks and niches. To this studio, which was an object of interest and a social goal, she invited a group of women for a Bible class. She reached in this way women who would never have been reached by meetings in the church. An Unannounced Feature of a Reception—A pas- tor’s wife in West Virginia had been greatly interested MISSIONARY EDUCATION 91 by a missionary address, heard by only a few women of her congregation. She said: “ There are women in our church who have never heard of these wonderful mis- sionary opportunities, and who never will hear unless something out of the ordinary is done.” With the squarely set jaw of a firm decision not to be denied she approached the speaker who made that address. ‘“ You are to go with me to a large reception this week and you are going to make a missionary talk there. So many of our women never come to our meetings and they simply must hear these things.” To that recep- tion the speaker went, trembling a bit at the thought of the possible hidden resentment on the part of the seem- ingly gracious hostess and guests. There was a polite lull in the general conversation as she was led to a place in the doorway. The lull deepened into an evident in- terest as she drew from her bag a string of beads and began to tell the story of the woman in Japan to whom those beads once belonged. Women who had never before heard a missionary appeal listened that day with deep interest and earnestness to a call from the women of Japan for the Christ who has so enriched the lives of the women of America. Reaching High School Girls and Boys.—Several years ago Robert E. Speer was in Columbia, South Carolina, to deliver the Smith Lectures to the Columbia Theological Seminary. A teacher in the city schools, who had heard Dr. Speer, longed with all her heart that the boys and girls of the high school might have the opportunity of hearing him. She arranged with the ‘superintendent of city schools to have Dr. Speer talk to 92 MISSIONARY METHODS the boys and girls at chapel. Into the auditorium marched the students—hundreds of missionary possi- bilities. ‘There was the silence that would have made audible the dropping of the proverbial pin, as Dr. Speer told of the Scotch lad who won the Oxford- Cambridge bicycle race, who wrested the world’s bicycle championship from Keen, who mastered short- hand so that he became the authority for the Encyclo- pedia Britannica, who conquered Arabic until he was recognized as one of the best Arabic scholars in the world, who had wealth and position, but who put before all these things the call to carry Jesus Christ to the needy Mohammedans of Arabia and who consecrated all of his magnificent talents to this service. Not a boy or a girl, not a teacher or a visitor who heard can ever forget the matchless challenge to heroic living and heroic dying in the story of Ion Keith-Falconer. A Never “ Dry” Theme.—The Missionary Union of Williamsport, Pa., secured from the superintendent of the high school an invitation for one of their speakers to make a talk to the students. When the speaker was graciously introduced by the superintendent as a mis- sionary speaker the bright faces of the hundreds of boys and girls evidenced an inward groan of patient endurance. The speaker told the story of John G. Paton and the digging of his well in the New Hebrides. The keen after-comments of one boy suggest the pos- sibilities of missionary stories at high school chapel exercises. He said: ‘Of course we thought the mis- sionary lady would be dry as sticks, but you bet there was nothing dry about er. How could she be dry _ *® MISSIONARY EDUCATION 93 when she struck a whole well of water before she finished? ”’ , Mixed with Geography and History.—It is well for us to remember that Eliza Agnew never forgot the geography lesson she had that day, when she was eight years old, when she learned about the Isle of France and her teacher told the class of that beautiful young missionary, Harriet Newell, who never reached the field to which she had consecrated her life, but was buried on this same Isle of France, which was in the geog- raphy lesson. A mother who remembered this as she was teaching her little boy a lesson on China decided to find out whether missions would mix well with geog- raphy in the school to which her boy went. She called at the school-room that day with a number of curios she had, illustrative of some of the manners and cus- toms of the Chinese people. The teacher asked her to tell the boys and girls about these things during the lesson. With keenest interest and delight, the small auditors looked and listened while China ceased to be a page in a geography and became a real place. A Chinese idol naturally introduced the religions of China with a missionary message. A teacher of another grade, overhearing part of the talk, came in with a plea that it be repeated in her room, after that, in yet another room. Workers, who are really interested in having our boys and girls hear, can often arrange that returned missionaries visit schools during geography and history classes. College Opportunities —In our colleges and universi- ties are thousands of young men and young women who 94 MISSIONARY METHODS decide the question of their life work without ever having heard the call of the mission field presented. A young medical student took his degree some years ago. He decided to begin his practice in a beautiful little town in Virginia, famed as a health resort. The signs over several offices gave testimony to the fact that an adequate number of physicians were on the ground before he arrived. He hung out his sign also among the others and waited. As the call-less days went by he became desperate. “If people discern,” reasoned he with himself, “that no patients are coming, then none will come.” Then he resorted to what, in these days, is charitably called camouflage. Down the steps he dashed, mounted his horse in seeming haste and galloped off at full speed into the country, hoping thereby to disarm the minds of the populace of any lurking suspicion as to the lack of demand for his pro- fessional services. This done, he galloped back again. Day after day he went through the pathetic deception. He thought it was so everywhere, and that all young doctors had to wait for patients to come. He had never heard of any place where doctors were more in demand. | Another young doctor completed his course and sailed for Africa as a medical missionary. Within fif- teen minutes after he landed he performed his first major operation. His patients were lined up waiting for the arrival of his steamer. In a short time he had charge of a hospital, and the measure of his own daily strength was the only limit to the number of patients he could relieve each day. He had heard of the oppor- MISSIONARY EDUCATION 95 tunity for medical men in Africa before he decided his location. If some one had presented to the medical students of the other doctor’s class such an oppor- tunity, he might have put his life where the need was greater. One board secretary secured for China one of the most brilliant of recent college graduates who had never given foreign missions a serious thought in connection with her own life work. When she heard the unparalleled opportunity in training the college women of the New China definitely presented she could not withhold her life from that service. Let Capitalists Hear “Thank you so much for telling me about this op- portunity,”’ said a woman as she handed a check to the secretary who had presented a missionary opportunity to her. ‘I am so glad to have a chance at a good in- vestment like that.” A friend standing by gasped. She had thought that woman was just a butterfly of society. Possibly she was. Possibly no one had ever told her before of such investments. There are many people of wealth in our churches who have never heard of the wonderful invest- ments which are possible on the mission field. They also may rise up to accuse, if we do not tell them, or to bless, if we do. Let us rid ourselves forever of any thought of begging for missions, but let us feel more deeply the responsibility and the honour given to us of presenting God’s work to God’s stewards. A stenographer, whose income was $50.00 a month, was told that $60.00 a year would support a Bible woman in Japan. She adjusted her living so that she 96 MISSIONARY METHODS could save $5.00 a month and assumed the support of a Japanese Bible woman. Many others would have followed her example if they had heard. A little boy into whose hands few coins came heard the call from the starving children of Armenia presented. With quiet determination, that involved more of sacrifice than have many larger gifts, he sent all of his quarter to the Armenian-Syrian Relief Fund. Multiplied thou- sands of American boys and girls would have done the same thing if they had been told in the same way, but they have not heard. A man was told of the opportunity to support a mis- sion station in Korea. In response he assumed the whole financial cost of that entire station. There are other men of just as great wealth who might do like- wise if they had heard. On the one hand are the millions who have never heard of the only Saviour of the world; on the other hand, millions who have never heard the call for money and for lives to be poured out in the greatest task ever given by God to man. Between them we stand. Let us stand with the determination that they shall hear. VI EYE-GATE METHODS ‘ Y YE have quoted glibly, ‘‘ Psychologists tell us that eighty-five per cent. of all we know is learned through our eyes,’ yet we have continued to trust largely to our tongues for methods of missionary work. We talk and we argue to win missionary converts and to increase missionary inter- est. Of course, that is one way, but there are other ways that are often more fruitful. Deeper than the impression made by what we hear is the impression made by what we see. A child, who listened unmoved to the tale of suffering related by his mother, when she appealed to him to do without something himself in order to feed and clothe children who were poor and needy, was taken to see these children in their cold, bare home. Immediately he proposed to give up much more _ than the gifts his mother’s arguments failed to secure. SEEING ACTUAL NEED Delegates to the conferences held in the magnificent grounds at Blue Ridge, North Carolina, know what it once was to make a dash from Robert E. Lee Hall to the dining hall on rainy days. One day a committee meeting of distinguished citizens was held at Blue Ridge. Fortunately for future conferences, that meet- ing chanced to be on a rainy day. The rain was not of 97 98 MISSIONARY METHODS the summer shower variety, but was a good steady, soaking downpour. Among the distinguished gentle- men who sank in the mud at each step as that commit- tee walked up the hill was William Jennings Bryan. No address was delivered on the need for a walk. No “stirring appeal”? was made, save that made by the mud which clung tenaciously to the soles of Mr. Bryan’s shoes. No subscription paper was circulated, no collection basket was passed. That mud on the great commoner’s shoes was worth more than appeal, and subscription paper, and collection basket all put together. Because his feet touched the mud, Mr. Bryan drew out his check book and wrote a check for $100.00 to start the fund which put a walk and per- gola from Lee Hall to the dining hall. If we could get some of the folks who are not giving to missions to see and touch the mud in which some other folks constantly walk, check-books would be drawn out without any frenzied appeals, and lives would be consecrated to the service of God through service to mankind. One of the revelations of these war days has been the power that has come with the purpose put into lives that were being frittered away uselessly. Women and girls who had been classed as mere butterflies, have become heroic workers for relief agencies, when they have been brought face to face with a suffering world. They are capable of greater achievements. THE RELATION BETWEEN SEEING AND DOING What They Saw and What They Did Captain Allen Gardiner, an English naval officer, saw EYE-GATE METHODS 99 the hopeless condition of the natives of Tierra del Fuego, whom Darwin pronounced “ lower than many animals and incapable of being civilized.” He determined to return to South America as a mes- senger of the Cross. There he gave his life in the effort to bring the Gospel to those destitute people. A party of tourists were “seeing China.” One young girl was impressed with the need of Chinese girls for Christian schools and teachers. She let her friends return to America without her, and Frederica Mead stayed in China to teach in Gin- ling College, Nanking. A man of wealth was shown through an orphan home and saw the need and destitution of the chil- dren there. He wrote a check which provided a pair of shoes for the little bare feet of every orphan child in the home. Some girls in a southern city were taken to visit the negro quarters and saw that the cooks going out to work either locked their small children in a room alone or turned them out on the streets. These girls started a day nursery for negro children and secured funds to provide nurses, a kindergarten teacher for the younger children and industrial teachers for the older ones. A girl, who went to the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina for her summer vacation, saw the igno- rance and destitution of some of the children of the mountains. She wrote back home for Bibles and papers and 100 MISSIONARY METHODS spent her vacation teaching the children, who had never had any other chance to learn. When the Laymen’s Missionary Movement began its work, a party of sixty-six laymen went out to see for themselves the mission fields of the world. When they returned, their messages so stirred the first Laymen’s Conventions that gifts still continue to come in to supply needs they saw in non-Christian lands. HOW SHALL THEY SEE? 1. Conduct community surveys-—Our missionary societies should not do a “‘ mail order” business ex- clusively. Some of us live in profound and comfortable ignorance of the missionary needs of our own com- munities. Every church has members who would do good missionary work right at home if brought face to face with the need. 2. Make provision for work among foreigners.— Japan, India, China, Africa, Italy—all the lands of the earth are in our cities and even in our smaller towns. A Philadelphia woman longed to go to the foreign field. Instead of having that great opportunity she was only a pastor’s wife in Philadelphia. Even the opportunity she had there seemed to be endangered, for the good residence section in which her husband’s church was located began to take on a different complexion, as one by one the prosperous families moved out and dusky foreigners moved in. It seemed as if there was nothing | to do but to follow the plan of many other churches and move out of the foreign quarters. Then that pastor’s wife began to see. She saw the tired young mothers EYE-GATE METHODS 101 who seemed to be mere girls. She saw the children with bright eyes shining out from dirty little faces, as the little tots sat on the steps or swarmed over into the congested streets. That church did not move. That pastor’s wife did not have to invest any funds in an ocean voyage to reach her opportunity. She simply lifted up her eyes and saw it, and Mrs. E. R. Cassaday began the Italian Kindergarten and the Italian Mission which has done such splendid missionary service in a section of Philadelphia from which many churches ran away. 3. Appoint committees to visit institutions and families needing aid—An investigation made by one church revealed the fact that no religious services of any kind were held in some of the charitable institu- tions in that city. The members of that church were greatly blessed and became a great blessing in conduct- ing such services. Go outside of ‘‘ the faithful few ” in appointing these committees. Recently a woman who was one of the regulars on every committee ap- pointed from her church proposed that she should get someone else to serve in her place on a committee on the orphanage work. She enlisted a woman who had never done anything for the orphans, but who became intensely interested when she visited the institution and saw the needs, and has since given valuable service. 4. Make definite plans that people who are able to relieve the need by gifts of money or time shall be brought face to face with the need.—Often people are doing what they are doing because no one has shown them anything better to do. 102 MISSIONARY METHODS 5. Arrange tours of foreign mission fields for people who are able to render larger service—In many in- stances, a little urging will result in a visit to mission stations being included in the plans of a touring party. 6. Enable people at home to see the needs of the world by pictures, charts, lantern slides, pageants and literature. LIVING SIGN-BOARDS THAT POINT THE WAY Last winter a lady asked that great missionary leader, Pastor Stearns, whether he had always been a missionary pastor. ‘“‘QOh, no,” he answered. ‘‘ There came a man from Japan—” ‘Then followed the story of the missionary from Japan, who came to the young pastor and gave him the thought that there was missionary opportunity above the paying of an apportionment. The support of the one Bible woman undertaken at that time grew until Pastor Stearns reported total cash privileges (which is his way of stating what most people call generous contributions) of more than a million dollars for foreign missions. That same sentence, “There came a man,” or “There came a woman,” is the introduction to the missionary activity of most great workers. The sign- boards that point the way to eager young feet are not the inanimate posts of abstract advice which say: “This is the way to missionary zeal,” but are animate men and women whose heroic example points the way, and compels following. THREE STORIES 1. A missionary mother was paying her bill at the EYE-GATE METHODS 103 close of a summer conference. That mother was not a woman of wealth, yet she had two sons and two daughters with her at the conference. “How do you manage to do it? ” asked her friend. ‘“‘ Well, it is not easy,” was the answer, “‘ but you see I count that the strongest missionary influence which I can bring to bear on my boys and girls is to have them see and come in contact with the people I want them to be like, so all during the year I save up all I can to make it possible to have my children at this conference, so that they may see and know the great leaders of the world.” One of those sons is now a missionary to China, and the indications are that the other children will either be foreign missionaries or missionary leaders in the homeland. 2. The entertainment committee for a large mission- ary convention placed at the home of a woman of great wealth a plain, unassuming little missionary from India. ‘“‘ Why didn’t they send her some of our rich delegates, who would know what to do in such a pal- ace? ” wondered some of the delegates. But the little missionary did know what to do. For the first time in her life the woman with millions saw, with her own eyes, in her own home, a woman who made foreign missions a reality to her. Suddenly India seemed to have crossed the ocean and to have come right to her very door. That her dollars should begin to cross the ocean and go to India was only a natural result. 3. When Dr. John Scudder, the pioneer medical missionary from America to India, came home on fur- lough, thousands of children went to his meetings to 104 MISSIONARY METHODS see the “missionary doctor.” Years afterward, mis- sionaries in many lands testified that their first mis- sionary impulse was received, as they looked at this missionary hero, and scores of workers in the home- land dated the beginning of their interest to the day on which they met Dr. Scudder. PICTURE POSSIBILITIES Not all of us can make world tours. Not all of us can visit the people we long to meet. But all of us can bring the world and its peoples before our eyes by pic- tures. Never were pictures used as widely as now. Often the contents of a whole magazine or book fades from our minds while the striking, stirring message of some picture abides with us. Every book on mission- ary methods has something to say about pictures, yet we missionary folk are making scant use of our mar- vellous picture opportunities. PICTURE METHODS THAT HAVE BEEN TESTED Pictures and one empty frame.—One Sunday-school teacher kept ever before her class the pictures of mis- sionaries which her church supported. There was al- ways one empty frame. ‘The teacher and the scholars prayed constantly for more missionaries to be sent out. As each recruit sailed, a picture was put in the empty frame and another frame was hung up. The prayer that the picture of some member of the class might some day fill the empty frame was frequently offered. A frame with a hinged back.—A teacher who had limited wall space and limited funds at her disposal put small hinges on the back of a picture frame which made it possible to quickly insert different pictures. The EYE-GATE METHODS 105 boys and girls in her department watched with keen interest to see who would know the picture displayed each Sunday and welcomed eagerly the opportunity to tell the story of each picture they knew, or to learn about new pictures. Instead of matinee and movie idols —Glimpses into the rooms of our young folks reveal the fact that the companionship of the pictured folk who constantly dwell with them is furnished largely by the theatrical or the sporting page. A father who saw his son gazing with rapt adoration into the eyes of some of the stars circulated by cigarette companies, hung two pictures of great missionary heroes over the boy’s desk. Both of them had been star athletes as well as heroic mis- sionaries and the boy heard of their work with keenest interest. Day after day he sat in their presence until they helped to make the atmosphere of his room and to mould the ideals of his life. At one of the Northfield Conferences, one of the leaders presented several hundred small pictures of great missionaries to the girls. The pictures were eagerly received, and took the place of other faces less worthy in the rooms of many of the girls who were Northfield delegates that year. Back to albums.—There was a day when a photo- graph album, encased in brilliant plush, was a neces- sary adornment of the parlour table. In these latter days, we have relegated most of our photograph albums to the garret, and there is a vacancy which needs to be filed. Why not fill it with a missionary album? When we have boys and girls of the junior age in our 106 MISSIONARY METHODS homes, in our Sunday-school classes and missionary societies, we do not have to glance into a psychology to grasp the significance of “collecting interests strong.” They are going to collect something and missionary albums in our homes, in our Sunday-schools and our missionary societies will give good direction to these strong collecting interests. A Japan album, an India album, a China album, an Africa album will make very real to juniors, as well as to their elders, the conditions and the needs in these lands. An interesting ‘‘ Guest Book ” may be made from pictures of foreigners in America. Unveiling missionary pictures—-A young woman, who was deeply impressed by the first missionary pic- ture she saw unveiled, wrote this description of it: “On the platform stood an easel. On the easel was a picture draped with the stars and stripes. Above was the only flag that ever flies over Old Glory—the Christian flag which bears a blood-red cross. As we sat in the auditorium, eager to see what was underneath the folds of the flag, we were conscious of the atmosphere of waiting expectancy which creates an appetite for the missionary programs here so different from the dead certainty we have about our cut- and-dried meetings at home. We sang a hymn. Then a charming woman and a fine story-teller (I don’t mean two women, she was both in one) stepped forward by the picture and told the story of an Iowa orphan girl, who longed to go to school and to have pretty clothes like the other girls. She told of her letter to a college president and her joy over his answer saying she might come; of how she dug away at her college tasks; of the purpose that filled her heart to become a medical missionary. “‘ My throat began to choke up a bit when she told about EYE-GATE METHODS 107 the way this girl lived in an attic in Chicago, cooked her own meals and almost starved herself to death doing it, so she could finish her medical training. Every one of us girls in the audience felt like shouting ‘ Bravo,’ when we heard how she finally did win out and complete the course, and every one of us felt like we were right there in China as we listened to the story of her splendid work. When the Boxer uprising was mentioned we shuddered. ‘ Surely it couldn’t be ’—we thought, but it was, and the tears just rolled down our cheeks when we heard of how she was put to death by the very people she had gone to help. I had a queer feeling of exaltation as I listened to the story of how she bound up a gash in the head of a Chinese boy, the very last thing she did, after they had led her down under the tree to take her life. Somehow I felt assured that Christianity was going to conquer the world. I was not conscious of the fact that the speaker had not told us the name of the heroine, until she paused for a moment. Then a boy and a girl stepped for- ward and lifted the cords which held the flag. As its folds were drawn back, the speaker said: ‘ And so Eleanor Chest- nut’s name was added to the great band of martyrs who, like their Saviour, have given their lives to carry salvation to those who put them to death,’ and all of us rose to our feet. As the folds of that flag were drawn back, Eleanor Chest- nut’s eyes seemed to flash a challenge to me. I have heard many eloquent missionary addresses and appeals, but as she looked at me from the picture while we sang: “« The martyr first whose eagle eye Could pierce beyond the grave; Who saw her Master in the sky, And called on Him to save. Like Him, with pardon on His tongue In midst of mortal pain, She prayed for them that did the wrong: Who follows in her train?’ 108 MISSIONARY METHODS ‘“‘ My heart gave answer to the challenge with a stronger determination than had ever been mine before to follow in that train.” WHERE TO GET PICTURES 1. From the Review and other missionary maga- zines. It is often worth while to subscribe for an extra copy, from which to cut pictures. 2. From the denominational mission boards, most of which issue picture sheets and pictures of missionaries. 3. Some pictures from secular magazines may be made very effective by the addition of a missionary application. Often pictures may be built from many sources. A primary superintendent pasted a picture of ‘“‘ Jesus Blessing Little Children ” in the centre of a large sheet of cardboard. She called the attention of her scholars to the fact that only the little white chil- dren were in that picture, and asked them whether they thought there were any other children Jesus wanted to bless. She asked them to bring pictures of other chil- dren. The next Sunday they came with pictures of the little ones—black, red, yellow and brown. There were Indian babies strapped in their cradles, and little Eskimos in furs. There were the little brown children of India and Japanese tots in their long kimonos. The teacher pasted the pictures around the central figure of the Christ. Then all of the children recited the verse, “Suffer the little children to come unto me.” Each Sunday additional pictures were added, and the verse was recited, while the meaning to the children grew ever larger and larger, as the teacher told how the chil- dren of the world were being brought to Jesus through EYE-GATE METHODS 109 the mission Sunday-schools and kindergartens. Of course, some of the children brought pictures that were not usable. These were graciously received by the teacher and laid away to be used if needed some other time. Stereo pticon lectures should have a place in the mis- sionary educational program of every church. One church, which has shown a marked increase in mission- ary activity in recent years, plans at the beginning of the year, a series of stereopticon lectures, so scheduled as to fit in with the mission study courses of the vari- ous societies. Most of the denominational boards have for rent sets of slides on their mission fields. An address without words——The moving pictures have taught us how effectively a subject may be pre- sented without a spoken word. Try having some subject presented in your meetings by a series of pictures and charts held up one after another, or passed around from member to member. MISSIONARY MOTTOES AND CHARTS Among other things of a former generation, which this generation has relegated to the attic, are the mot- toes, marvellously wrought by the deft fingers of our grandmothers out of many-coloured zephyrs. Yet the value of mottoes abideth, and wise is the missionary worker who makes it count as much as possible for missions. Business men have secured many hours of coveted privacy by simply hanging in plain view of the friendly loafer, “If you w#l kill time, kill your own, 110 MISSIONARY METHODS not ours.”” The Government spent three million dol- lars in advertising the Liberty Loans, a large part of which was put in posters with striking mottoes. A splendid missionary program may be arranged by adapting these mottoes. ‘“‘ America, Wake Up,” may be used in connection with striking facts about home or foreign missions, to- gether with pictures making the application. “Tf You Cannot Enlist, Invest,’’ will make an at- tractive and appropriate motto with which to present a missionary enterprise, or several facts about what amounts invested in missions will accomplish. Less dignified, but equally striking is: ‘“ If You Can- not Go Across, Come Across.” The words that we see constantly before us have a wonderful influence on our lives. Delegates at a stu- dent conference last summer heard Robert E. Speer tell of a text which had made a profound impression on his life. It was not a text on which he had heard some great minister deliver an eloquent discourse, but the text which he had seen every Sunday on the walls of the church in which he worshipped as a boy. A platform that may exert wide influence is furnished by the wall space of the auditoriums in which meetings are held. One woman who exerted an influence, which can never be estimated, on a great convention, was not on the platform at all. She spoke not a word that was heard by the audience, yet she spoke, in a way never to be forgotten, from the charts and mottoes which she had placed on the wall. Every bare wall is a mission- ary opportunity. Societies would do well to appoint EYE-GATE METHODS 111 one member who should have charge of the wall space for their meetings. INEXPENSIVE CHART AND POSTER MATERIALS “That all looks very well,” said the delegate who saw the splendid display of charts and posters at a convention, ‘‘ but I should like to know how a society with no funds at hand is going to buy materials for all these things.”” The woman who had made the charts smiled. Years before she had entered that school of training which teaches women the gentle art of making many things without buying materials, the entrance certificate to which school is a marriage certificate to a preacher. She then revealed to the delegate the fol- lowing economy secrets on the subject of making posters and charts. The letters which stood out effectively were cut from the Saturday Evening Post, which, in kind thoughtful- ness to makers of missionary charts, selected a title which practically covers the alphabet, if a few skilful combinations of letters are worked out. Three or four letters may be cut at a time from different coloured paper by holding several layers together. Often there are “shut-ins ”’ who are glad to cut out hundreds of letters from these or other patterns, so that a full sup- ply may be always ready for the chart-makers. The lettering done in coloured crayons called into use the children’s box of Reuben’s Crayons. When the charts are made on cloth, a hot iron pressed on the crayon work will keep it from rubbing. White oil cloth from the five and ten cent store fur- 112 MISSIONARY METHODS nished the material for a chart with painted letters and figures, in which changes were to be made. The chart-maker’s “ treasure chest’ was a family joke at first, but soon the whole family became inter- ested in it, and not the family only, but also a wide circle of friends gathered up pictures of every hue to be added to the store-house. Soon there was such a collection on hand that it was an easy matter to make a chart on any land or any subject. WHAT ONE MOTTO ACCOMPLISHED At a summer conference several years ago a woman, who is constantly on the lookout for opportunities to circulate missionary literature, gave a hundred beauti- ful copies of a motto to delegates. The motto selected was David Livingstone’s famous saying: ‘‘ The end of the geographical feat is the beginning of the missionary enterprise.” Two years later, at another conference, a delegate spoke at the farewell meeting. She said: ‘“ Two years ago I went home from the conference utterly discour- aged. I wanted to go as a foreign missionary, but the door seemed absolutely closed before me. When I reached home, I put up a motto some one had given me at the conference. As I looked at it again and again I knew that I had reached the end of my geography and that I would likely spend all of my life right in the town in which I was living. Then, day by day, the thought grew that with me also the end of geography might be the beginning of missionary enterprise. A deeper purpose to go into all the world filled my heart. Since then I have really begun my missionary enter- EYE-GATE METHODS 113 prise, and already two volunteers for the foreign field have gone out from my mission study class. I trust that this is really the beginning.” PAGEANTS ‘“‘ What made the deepest impression on you?” was the question asked at an informal meeting at the close of a summer school. In the back of the auditorium a man rose and said: “T have charge of a manufacturing plant with men of many different nationalities in my employ. Never in my life has anything made me realize my responsi- bility to them and my missionary opportunity as did that pageant the girls gave of ‘ Christ in America.’ I am going back home with a new idea and a new ideal.” This is not an unusual answer to such a question. Last summer at the Foreign Missions Week at North- field a very simple presentation of Mrs. Peabody’s and Mrs. Montgomery’s tour of the mission fields was given. It was too unpretentious to be scheduled as a pageant, yet it was such a forceful presentation of the way mission work is conducted in various fields and of the need of the women of the world for the Gospel, that many delegates said it made a deeper impression on them than did any other part of the program. CHARTS AND MISSIONARY FUNDS Dr. H. F. Laflamme, one of the secretaries of the New York Federation of Churches, tells a striking story of the influence of a simple chart or motto: “About ten years ago, the pastor of a very wealthy church placed over his pulpit one of the quotations which 114 MISSIONARY METHODS the Laymen’s Missionary Movement had printed: ‘ Not how much of my money will I give to God, but how much of God’s money will I keep for myself.’ “ The striking statement laid hold of the consciences of his people. A wealthy woman who was not interested in missions came to the pastor and said: ““¢T wish you would take that sign away. It offends our esthetic taste, and is not in keeping with the beautiful surroundings.’ “The pastor urged that the motto was giving a message and that unquestionably it would greatly increase the gifts to missions. She proposed that she would make a gift of $500 a year if he would remove the motto. It had touched her conscience, as well as offended her esthetic taste. “* Five hundred dollars is not enough. That motto is worth a missionary a year,’ he said. Then he talked with her earnestly about her opportunity for using God’s money for God’s work. She finally decided to assume the support of a missionary at $1,200 a year. “‘ The pastor moved the motto to the Sunday-school room where it again began its quiet work. The woman has since given $50,000 to a local charity and still supports her mis- sionary. From the chart which offended her esthetic taste she learned her first real lesson in stewardship.” Vil THE SIXTH SENSE IN MISSIONARY TRAINING began to lecture on open doors in missionary training, they have shown us charts with five -avenues through which the individual may be reached. We have had the missionary possibilities of the five senses presented again and again. Woefully over- looked, however, has been the importance of the sixth sense in missionary training. What we do is not only a result of missionary train- ing, but a part of it. Only three-tenths of what we see is so impressed upon us that we do not forget it, yet we remember nine-tenths of what we do. A man may for- get in a few days the most eloquent missionary address he ever heard, but he remembers for years, as if it were a thing of yesterday, the dollars he gave to missions. Cyrus Hamlin may have forgotten many of the best missionary addresses he ever heard, but never did he forget that seven cents he dropped into the missionary contribution box. As a venerable old man with a snow- white beard, the famous founder of Robert College re- membered to a penny that thing he did as a boy, when he gave up his ginger-bread in order that he might put the whole of his lunch money into the contribution box. Pete Parker, as a boy, visited the poor and suffering 115 VER since writers began to write and lecturers 116 MISSIONARY METHODS, j and ministered to them. As a Yale student heroically he nursed the stricken ones during a cholera epidemic in New York and New Haven, when some other stu- dents were so terror-stricken they scarcely dared to put their heads out of the door. The things that Pete Parker, the boy, did entered into the making of the great Dr. Peter Parker, the famous surgeon who opened China to the Gospel with his lancet. No part of the training of that faithful-unto-death young missionary, William Whiting Borden, was worth more than the actual missionary work he did, when he put the automobile he might have had during his college days into funds for the Yale Hope Mission and knelt there, night after night, with his arm around some “ down-and-out ” trying to lead him to Christ. Expression is not only a result of, but is a part of, impression. The old story of the boy who cried, “Wolf, Wolf,” has been given a new interpretation by a modern missionary leader, who says: “ The first day the boy called ‘ Wolf, Wolf! ’ the men ran out with their arms ready and their purpose unhesitating to kill the wolf and to protect the boy and the sheep. But there was no wolf for them to kill and nothing for them to do, so they went back home. The second day the boy called again ‘ Wolf, Wolf! ’ A few men answered his call with less determination than on the preceding day. There was no wolf and they returned home having done nothing. The third day a terrified call rang out, but the men paid no heed, even though there was a wolf to be killed. Had they killed a wolf the first. day they would have returned in full force the second day ready to slay a dozen wolves. Had they killed another wolf on the second day they would have been MISSIONARY TRAINING 117 ready to face and extinguish the whole wolf tribe by the third day.” The deadening effect of constantly receiving impres- sions through the five senses without deepening and ex- pressing those impressions through this sixth sense makes our missionary zeal a matter of sham and veneer. Here lies the explanation of the contradiction of the people in our churches who can listen to the presentation of the dire need of non-Christian peoples with a casually sympathetic murmur of, “‘ Poor things. Isn’t it a pity?” Here lies also explanation of that other group who are moved to tears by the recounting of those needs, but whose tears so flood their eyes that they are completely blinded and they do not see the contribution plate or any other relief agency which offers opportunity for speedy betterment of the condi- tions which they so much deplore. Truly, ‘ Impression without expression results in depression.” One Way of Hearing a Call A missionary was invited to address a children’s meeting. She told the children about those other chil- dren who had never heard of the Saviour. They listened eagerly. She showed them some interesting curios. They looked at them with keenest interest and touched them with wondering awe. She burned incense sticks to show how these other children worshipped their idols. She passed around some cakes she had brought from the mission station. Through each of the five senses she tried to interest the children in the dark-skinned people of her mission. They were inter- ested. Their hearts were filled with sympathy for these 118 MISSIONARY METHODS other children who lived always in fear of evil spirits and they wanted to help them. When the missionary finished, the superintendent said, ‘‘ We have been so happy to have our dear Mrs. Blank with us today to tell us these interesting stories. I am sure that all of us have enjoyed hearing her and that we are going to try to do more for the little children who have never heard of Jesus. All of you who are going to try, raise your hands.” Every little hand was raised. The children were sin- cere about it, but they must have been forced to the conclusion that the whole matter was disposed of by a raising of hands, for that was the last they ever heard of it, and all they ever did about it. The next missionary talk they heard could not make as deep an impression on them, and by and by the subtle insincerity, which the Lord recognized in those who protested their love to Him, yet did not the things that He said, will cloak them, unless a wiser teacher makes use of the sixth sense in their missionary training. A Better Way : A missionary made a similar talk to another group of children. When she finished, the superintendent looked into the interested faces of her boys and girls and said: ‘“‘ What can we do for these children who never heard of Jesus? ” Up went a little hand. ‘“‘ What is it, Robert? ” ‘“ Couldn’t we pray for them? ” MISSIONARY TRAINING 119 “Yes,” said the superintendent. ‘ Let us pray for them.” Reverently the little heads were bowed and rever- ently the children followed in the prayer as she led them. “Ts there anything else we can do? ” A hand wriggled violently and, in answer to the teacher’s nod of recognition, the boy to whom the hand was attached said: ‘‘ Say, if they had Bibles couldn’t they read about Jesus? ” The speaker fairly beamed over the originality of his suggestion. He felt like the owner of the copyright. The superintendent beamed, too. ‘“‘ That would be one of the very best things to do— to send them Bibles,” she said. ‘‘ We can get Bibles in their own language now, so they can read them for themselves.” “How much will one cost? ” instantly came the in- quiry from the originator of the plan. “We can get a good Bible now for fifty cents,” an- swered the missionary. Quick as a flash a small brown hand dived down into a small brown pocket. There was no rattle of coins. Evidently there was nothing left to rattle when the triumphant hand came up, firmly grasping a half dollar. “‘Get one,” said the boy laconically, as he placed the coin in the missionary’s hand. ‘“‘ Wait a minute,” said another boy as he darted out the door. In a few moments he was back again with fifty cents. ‘ Father said he’d lend me this fifty cents ”) 120 MISSIONARY METHODS until I got home to get it out of my bank. That’ll get another Bible.” ‘A little fellow sat looking wistfully at the two big, shining coins. “Can you get just part of a Bible?” he asked timidly. “To be sure you can,” answered the missionary heartily. ‘ You can get the Gospel of John for ten cents.”’ The boy’s face shone as he put his hand in his pocket and drew out his dime. “Could I send you some money to buy some Bibles? ” asked another. The teacher wrote down the missionary’s address on a card and gave it to the child. “Now,” she said, “is there anything else we can dor ” There was a moment’s pause, as those earnest little hearts faced the great need of the world for Christ. Then a hand went up. ‘“‘ Maybe,” said a serious voice, “I could go over there when I am grown and tell them about Jesus as she did.” That missionary talk made an impression that will last. SOME THINGS TO DO Rotate Offices Our churches are made up of two classes of folks — some who have to do everything and some who have nothing to do. In these days our ideas of faithful ser- vice are being revised a bit. We used to praise the woman who held the same office for half a century, MISSIONARY TRAINING 121 who won her victories single-handed and built up a great work so dependent upon herself that it crumbled and fell when she dropped out. Now we recognize that while such a woman may be faithful, she is not efficient. The really efficient worker is the one who enlists and trains others for service, who lives and works above the desire for such praise as “We will never find anyone else who can do the work as you have done it. Things will surely drop to pieces when you are gone.” The really efficient woman uses her experience to train her successors to do the work far better than she has done it. Instead of placidly ‘contemplating the collapse she feels must inevitably follow her removal, she is constantly enlarging and training the force of workers. ‘“‘ But,” came the protest when the rotation of office was proposed in a certain missionary society, “ there is only one woman in our church who knows how to pre- side over a meeting.” “That in itself,” said the efficiency expert, “is an unanswerable argument for the training of some other women to preside.” How Rotation Succeeded An officer of a society in South Carolina writes of what rotation of office did in her society: “‘'We had been meeting year after year and moving ‘ that the old officers be re-elected ’ until we never thought of any- thing else. Then along came the delegate from the conven- tion, proposing the rotation plan. We thought it would deal a death-blow to our society. Notwithstanding the fact that our church roll records the names of over five hundred mem- bers, a majority of whom are women, we had fallen into the 122 MISSIONARY METHODS habit of depending on two or three women in the missionary society for everything. When we passed a resolution that no officer could succeed herself in office for more than one term we had to begin a hunt for new material. We found our church full of capable women who had never been asked to do a thing. We avoided the mistake many societies have made of having all new officers go in at once, by a ruling that only one-half of the officers should be changed each year. Now, instead of having only one woman who can preside at a meeting, we have half a dozen. Our society has pulled up out of the rut and our work is advancing splendidly, while each year records the addition of new workers to our force.” Good officers are made as well as born. How to Make Them The Missionary Union of New Orleans is one of the city unions which has successfully tried the plan of having a course in parliamentary practises and the training of officers given by a specialist for the benefit of all the societies of the city. Such a course may be provided by any city or county union. Many denomi- national conventions are meeting this need by adding to their programs a course with specific training for of- ficers. In some congregations an officers’ training class has been found well worth while, enrolling not only the present officers but others who should be trained for office. Program Preparation The people who get most out of a program are those who put most into it. Here indeed is something to do. Most of our denominations furnish to their societies excellent canned programs. The writer has conducted MISSIONARY TRAINING © 123 a program cannery for years and pronounces the same to be a legitimate and needful business, but this pro- nouncement is followed by a plea to the presidents and program committees that they prove themselves some- thing more than mere can-openers. Missionary pro- grams have a distinct tin-can flavour if they are merely run around, poured out and served. The cannery officials expect the local societies to run out into their own gardens to pluck a crisp, fresh sprig of parsley which has grown since those programs were published, with which to garnish them before serving. They ex- pect the program leaders to sometimes add a few in- gredients from their own larders and once in a while to evolve appetizing croquettes from the plain canned salmon shipped to them. ‘“‘ How can we get our women to take as much inter- est in the missionary programs as they take in the Woman’s Club programs? ” comes the query. “‘ By getting them to put as much into the missionary programs as they do into the Woman’s Club programs,” is the answer. Instead of having programs which show the wonder- ful versatility of the pastor’s wife or some other woman who is expected to open the church, distribute the hymn-books, play the organ, lead the singing, lead the prayers and do most of the talking, make your meetings depend on as many people as possible. How Eighty-Three People Helped to Make a Meeting Two girls, who constituted the publicity committee, gave a notice of the meeting to the pastor, to be printed in the parish paper and announced as he had oppor- 124 MISSIONARY METHODS tunity; gave announcements to the teachers of the Sunday School classes for girls and women; prepared an attractive notice for the town paper before the meeting and another one after; made a poster announc- ing the meeting. The poster was displayed as a post- script to the meeting on the preceding month and was in evidence all during the month. 10 Circle leaders each called on the eight women composing her circle to talk enthusiastically about the meeting and about some advanced plans for the work. Some of these calls were telephone calls. hostesses went to the church several hours before the meeting to see that everything was in readiness and to put up some decorations that would be in keeping with the program. ‘These two women, assisted by girls in Oriental costume, received and welcomed the members at the door.. woman, who had an automobile, brought to the meeting a visiting missionary and two women from an Old Peo- ple’s Home. 5 officers took part in the meeting. organist played and the junior choir, composed of 30 girls, led the singing. soloist, who was not a member of the society, sang. 3 women, who had made careful preparation, each pre- sented one of the divisions of the topic for the day. 3 women led in prayer for the specific work presented. 6 other women were prepared to add a fact to the discus- sion which followed. 2 college girls gave an effective reading in two parts. 3 little girls in costume presented a very brief exercise. (This involved their costuming by 3 mothers.) clever girl displayed a clever chart which spoke its own message. iS) is) foot — fb — MISSIONARY TRAINING 125 The offering was gathered by 3 people—a grandmother, a mother and a daughter, all members of the society, a special invitation having been given them to be present that three generations might unite in this service. Secretary of Literature gave to each circle leader a leaflet to be taken to each member of her circle not present. She also gave out missionary books and maga- zines from the church library. 3 members, who constituted the Committee on Visiting the Sick, took the cut flowers and potted plants to sick folks, leaving a leaflet with each flower messenger. 1 pastor came in in time for a brief message to the society. —y Total 83 people. HOME-MADE NOTE-BOOKS Some of our junior leaders and teachers of girls’ classes have prepared the most fascinating note-books in which their classes are to record their findings on the topics studied. A Pennsylvania school teacher has dis- covered that stacks of discarded geographies make possible the cutting out of maps of different countries which, pasted on cardboard, furnish attractive backs for note-books in which facts about these countries may be recorded. The blank pages should be cut out in the shape of the map and fastened together with a cord. Let us remember the fascination of the ginger-bread man and all the wonders of the stars, the birds and the beasts into which the cookies of our childhood days were formed, and put a bit of the same fascination into the missionary note-books for our children. One Junior superintendent had her class paste pictures of 126 MISSIONARY METHODS the people of the Southern mountains, together with facts about them, in note-books, cut in the shape of log cabins, while flag-shaped books were used for some other Home Mission notes. Things to Make No small part of the interest in Red Cross work which has grown so amazingly all over our land is due to the fact that, from the greatest cities to the loneliest farm house, women have been working with their hands to furnish the supplies called for. A woman cannot knit for days on a sweater or a pair of socks without becoming interested in the person for whom she is working. There is also much missionary handwork to be done. Let us speed the passing of the day when we squander time on making fancy trifles to be sold at church fairs at exorbitant prices to people who really do not want them at any price, and usher in the day when our hands shall be busied clothing the needy, the sick and the suffering. Many of our societies could send each year a box of clothing to the suffering lepers of the world. Now that we have learned to knit, let us keep in practise until in addition to our own boys, every leper has a sweater. A letter addressed to the American Mission to Lepers, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y., will bring infor- mation about clothing needed for lepers. A Composite Deaconess An Atlanta, Georgia, pastor has furnished us the following unusual story of his composite deaconess: “To state our case in brief—we needed a parish deacon- ess and we had no money with which to employ one. I MISSIONARY TRAINING 127 began to study the situation. There came to me a realiza- tion of the fact that right in our congregation were people who could do much of the work of a deaconess. Taking my text from the Bible and my illustration from the Korean church members, who gave not only of their money but of their time also, I preached a sermon on service and asked for pledges of time to do the Lord’s work under the pastor’s leadership. The result was a revelation. Different mem- bers volunteered so many hours a day or so many hours a week that we soon had a full time composite parish deacon- ess promised. “ Then I found myself up against the hardest work and the biggest opportunity I have ever had. My hands were full keeping my workers busy. I found a vast difference between trying to do all the work myself and in directing other people in doing it. Blue Monday vanished from the face of my calendar. I had no time for it. Here were dozens of people ready to work. Early Monday morning I had to get down to going over the reports of the preceding week and outlining the work for the new week. Every worker called at my study for an outline of work to be done. In my search for things to keep them busy I found some great new opportunities. There were women who pledged hours each day for visiting and for ministering to the sick and needy. ‘That led to a systematizing of visitation and relief work. The cards of strangers who were at the services on Sunday went right into Monday’s budget of work. Here were girls ready to read to ‘shut ins.’ We had to hunt up sick folks to be visited and read to, and we found some who had been woefully neglected. We began to work in various city institutions we had never considered a part of our parish. We found institutions entirely without any religious services. Here came messenger boys ready to carry messages. Here were business men who pledged time more valuable than money. “When certain influential men began to take time to go out to talk with other men about attendance at church 128 MISSIONARY METHODS services and their relation to the Kingdom of God, we soon reached the point at which we no longer looked cautiously around to see whether there were enough men present at the evening service to take up the collection. A young man who was cooped up in an office all day volunteered service there with his typewriter. One by one the pledges continued to come in until we had a deaconess of gifts so diversified that every department of the church work waked to a new and fuller life as our congregation became a congregation not only of hearers of the word but of doers also.” SOUL WINNING The real objective of all missionary endeavour is the winning of souls, yet personal work for souls around us never enters into the plans of many of our missionary societies. We fancy that if we could stand by “ Af- rica’s sunny fountains ” or on “ India’s coral strand,” we would proclaim the love of Jesus to every passerby, yet our lips are dumb before those who are out of Christ all around us. A missionary secretary makes this confession: ‘“‘T was helping to set up a big convention, and was full of enthusiasm over making every session a success. On the opening day my aged father, who came as a delegate to the convention, sat with me at luncheon in the hotel. He listened sympathetically to my glowing accounts of the great features that were to be. When I paused for breath he leaned towards me and said, while his eye followed the stately movements of the head-waiter, ‘ Daughter, I think that big head-waiter over there is going to accept Jesus Christ. I’ve been talking to him about his soul.’ I almost gasped. I had been so busy planning for a great missionary convention, I had had no time to think of the soul of the head-waiter. MISSIONARY TRAINING 129 “When we went out to my apartment a negro man was washing the windows. Jim was honest and trustworthy and had been a most satisfactory helper in my home. Only a few moments passed before I heard my father talking earnestly with Jim about his personal salvation, and a swift accusation went to my heart as I realized that I had known Jim for years and had never said a word to him of salvation. ‘“‘ A carpenter came in to repair a door. I awaited his going with impatience to sign his work ticket, for my ardent soul longed to be back at my missionary task. Even as I waited I heard my father talking with the man about the door he had just fixed, and then simply and naturally lead- ing the conversation to the only door into the Kingdom of God. ‘“‘ A Jew lived across the street. I had thought that pos- sibly I would call on the folks who lived in the neighbour- hood—sometime, but I had my hands so full of my mis- sionary work the calls had never been made, but, as they met on the street my father talked with my neighbour of the only Saviour of the world. ‘“‘ A friend took us out to ride. I waited for my father to get into the car, but in a moment he was up beside the chauffeur and in a few minutes I heard him talking earnestly with the man about the way of salvation. When we reached home he said: ‘ You know I was afraid I might never have another chance to speak to that man.’ “The wife of a prominent railroad official took him out to ride in her elegant limousine. ‘I am glad she asked me to go,’ he said, ‘for it gave me an opportunity of talking with her about her salvation. I think no one had ever talked with her about it before.’ “Yet these opportunities had come to me also and had passed by as ships that pass in the night while I strained my eyes to catch sight of a larger sail on a more distant horizon. I could but question my own heart whether my passion was souls, or success in setting up conventions.” 130 MISSIONARY METHODS The children of America should be taught, as are the children of Korea, to work for souls. Every Sunday- school scholar should be a missionary to bring in other scholars. Every catechetical class should have, as one feature of its work, the gathering in and teaching in the way of salvation those who are outside the fold. A part of the missionary work of every man of the church should be the winning of other men. Our pas- tors should find their women’s missionary societies de- pendable agencies in filling the pews of the church and in bringing under the preaching of the word souls that may be saved. Vill FIRST, SECOND AND THIRD OF MISSION- ARY LITERATURE FIRST—-LEAFLETS YOUNG Frenchman was wounded at the siege a. of San Quentin. As he languished on his pal- let his eye fell on a leaflet. He read the leaflet and it changed all the rest of his life. Before the Church of the Consistory in Paris stands the monu- ment of that French soldier with a Bible in his hand. On the monument is the name of Admiral Coligny, the great leader of the Reformation in France. Having brought the conviction of the truths of the Reformation to the heart of Coligny, the leaflet journeyed on. The next reader was a Sister of Mercy, who was nursing the soldier. Terror-stricken and penitent over having read such a bold statement against the Church of Rome, the Sister fled to the Lady Abbess to confess her guilt. To determine the extent of the Sister’s guilt it was necessary for the Lady Abbess to read the leaflet. As she read, a great light shone in her own heart. Con- vinced by this light, she was compelled to flee from France to the Palatinate. With her she carried the leaflet containing its message of truth and light. Just a leaflet it was, which cost only a few cents; but it was destined to “stand before kings.” The Lady Abbess 131 132 MISSIONARY METHODS became the wife of William of Orange, and the leaflet with which she fled from France influenced his stand for the truths of the Reformation. All this came to pass because some unknown person left a leaflet on a hospital pallet. A young New York physician was visiting a patient. Brilliant prospects were before this young doctor. His practice was growing rapidly and his income was taking on large proportions. His fame was growing also, and his host of friends were forecasting that John Scudder would soon be one of New York’s foremost physicians. On this day, as he waited in the home of a patient, he picked up a copy of a leaflet, ‘‘ The Conversion of the World, or the Claims of Six Hundred Millions,” written by those two pioneer missionary spirits, Gor- don Hall and Samuel Newell. Dr. Scudder asked per- mission to take the leaflet home with him. There he read it, over and over again, until the claims of those six hundred millions without the Gospel and without medical care took hold upon his heart, so that he fell on his knees before the Lord, who had said: ‘‘ Go ye into all the world,” asking, ‘‘ Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” Because of the call which came to him through that leaflet, Dr. John Scudder went to India as the first medical missionary from America. Because he blazed the way, his nine children, and not fewer than fifteen of his grandchildren, have followed in his train and given their lives to missionary service. Ata recent Northfield Conference a company of mission- aries stood on the platform. When the presiding officer MISSIONARY LITERATURE 133 requested all who were not descendants of this grand old pioneer to be seated, we scarcely missed those who sat down for wonder and amazement at the number of Scudders who were furloughed representatives of this great missionary family at this one conference. Thou- sands of lives have been saved, hospitals have been opened and tens of thousands of souls have been led to our Saviour because a hundred years ago a woman laid a missionary leaflet on her table. A speaker had finished his eloquent missionary ap- peal. Eagerly the audience had followed his every word. At the close of the meeting they flocked around him. ‘“‘ Oh,” said one woman,as she wrung the speaker’s hand with ardent appreciation, ‘‘ if only I could speak as you do! If only it were possible for me to pass that wonderful address on to others! ” “Tt is,” said the speaker, with quiet grace. ‘“ For five cents you can get it at the book counter by the door as you go out.” It is not easy to surrender the alluring impossibility of standing before the multitudes and swaying them with our eloquence, to the prosaic possibility of stand- ing before the book counter and passing our coin across it. The larger possibility for most of us, however, is in the latter stand. How to Use Leaflets Read them and have other people read them. A young girl was asked to read a leaflet at a missionary meeting. When she had finished the reading she said, “TI must confess that I promised to read this, under 134 MISSIONARY METHODS protest. I was coming to the meeting especially to ask the president to quit bothering me about attending this missionary society, but I have stood up here and an- swered with my own mouth every objection I had expected to make, and I have convinced myself that: there is really no reason why I should not come and that there are many reasons why I should.” That same leaflet read aloud in gatherings of women has brought the same conviction to thousands. A well-known lawyer carries in his pocket a convinc- ing missionary leaflet. Often when making an address he takes it out and reads several paragraphs. When he is travelling with a friend or talking to a group of men he skilfully steers the conversation around to a point which enables him to pull out this telling bit of mis- sionary ammunition and fire it. “Value Received” in Two-Cent Stamps “That letter is not worth two cents,” said a woman as she was sealing an envelope. “Why not make it worth it? ” suggested the woman who always went loaded with missionary leaflets, as she slipped one into the envelope. ‘“‘ Postage rates are so high,” she added, with the shrewd smile of the close trader. ‘I always try to get my money’s worth out of every stamp. I know so many of my letters are not worth two cents that I have just formed the habit of slipping a good missionary leaflet in with them to be sure I get value received. “The business men all do it,” she Leena earn- estly, “‘ and it seems to me that we who are about the King’s business ought to be as wide-awake to use every MISSIONARY LITERATURE 135 opportunity for informing and interesting people in His business.” Readings by Elocutionists ! An almost untouched field is this. Great multitudes of people are interested and entertained by elocution- ists, but few teachers of expression or professional readers have ever had their attention directed to the thrilling stories of missionary heroism. A woman who is eager to circulate missionary leaflets in every way possible recently sent to the teachers of expression in a number of colleges and to professional readers and story-tellers, whom she knew, copies of leaflets with dramatic possibilities, and stories which any story- teller would gladly welcome. ‘The results were not only the enlisting of these leaders, but the reaching of hundreds of people who heard them. Some of the read- ers who had never considered missionary literature in their search for material found here pathos and hu- mour, romance and heroism in their finest forms, and. were delighted over their introduction to a new realm of material. One teacher of expression was called on again and again to give Elsie Singmaster’s “‘ Uncon- querable Hope,” published in The Atlantic Monthly, and reprinted in leaflet form. Two professional story- tellers who regularly tell stories to many children seemed never to have known before that there was anybody in missionary books except abnormally good little boys and girls who did nothing but sit still and die early. They were amazed to find that the “ plenty of action” called for in their story-telling outlines abounded in such a fascinating way in the missionary 136 MISSIONARY METHODS stories they received, which were gladly added to their store. Declamation Contests A wide range of possibility is suggested by this de- scription of a Declamation Contest: “We realized that our boys and girls were learning to talk everything else except missions. The fire insurance com- panies had offered a prize for the best essay on fire preven- tion. The D. A. R.’s had stirred the whole community by Revolution Declamations. The W. C. T. U.’s had conducted a fine contest on temperance that awakened much interest and did much good, so we decided to have a Missionary Declamation Contest. We put up, in the Sunday-school building, a poster telling all about it, and a register for en- tries. There were two classes for entry. Class A was open to boys and girls under fifteen, and Class B to those over fifteen and under eighteen. ‘Twenty-five leaflets were ex- hibited from which choice of declamation was to be made. Contestants were also given the privilege of writing their own declamations, subject to the approval of the committee. ‘“‘ Admission was by ticket, though no charge was made. Each contestant was given twenty-five tickets marked with his number, it being understood that those who had their full twenty-five tickets brought in on the night of the con- test, by persons who were present, scored one additional point. The house was full of people and the boys and girls were full of enthusiasm. Their voices rang out clear and strong in the splendid recital of missionary heroism. Not one of them failed to catch the fire of the great purpose of the heroes of whom they told, and not a heart in that audi- ence but that was touched, not a conscience but that was quickened. The offering for missions, taken while the judges were meeting, was the largest one we ever had. The judges were invited guests, not connected with the congregation. A missionary library of six volumes was presented to the win- MISSIONARY LITERATURE 137 ner and a generous friend gave a copy of ‘ Livingstone, the Pathfinder,’ to every contestant. The results were so far- reaching we have decided to make our Missionary Declama- . tion Contest an annual event.” What Some Folks Do with Missionary Leaflets At Christmas time she bought copies of an attractive leaflet, exquisite in its holly and Christmas bells, and irresistible in its missionary appeal, and mailed one to each of the friends to whom she usually sent Christmas cards. A young people’s society eager to use every oppor- tunity to reach the entire congregation with a mission- ary appeal mailed to each member at Easter a dainty leaflet which brought to each one the glad Easter mes- sage, “ He is Risen,” and laid on each heart the com- pelling Easter commission, “ Go and Tell.” She was a plain, unassuming little body who would scarcely dare address a word to an audience; but she longed to speak a missionary message. She bought as many copies of a good missionary story as there were scholars in the primary department of the Sunday School and handed one to each child at the close of the session. A pastor who mailed a parish paper to every member of his congregation each month gladly acceded to the request of the missionary society to enclose a timely missionary leaflet with each paper. When scores of young girls, who were guests at the luncheon given at Northfield at the 1917 Home Mis- sion Conference assembled, they found leaflets for place cards. 138 MISSIONARY METHODS A woman who knows how to avoid ruts, suggests missionary leaflets as occasional place cards for regular meetings. Let every member locate her place by a leaflet on which her name is written. Note absentees and have their leaflets carried to them by women who will make them wish they had been there and who will interest them in the next meeting, and tell them about the work. If a personal call is not possible in every case, mail the leaflet with a note from the president or some other officer. A North Carolina business man has in his office a row of pigeon-holes full of missionary leaflets. When he sends out a letter he encloses the leaflet he thinks will mean most to the person to whom he is writing. A hostess was putting a dainty lunch in a dainty box for a departing guest. Right on the top, peeping out from a Japanese napkin, she tucked in an attractive missionary leaflet. ‘‘ No human being,” thought she, as she smiled at her own cunning, “‘ would be mean enough to eat my lunch and throw away my leaflet unread, and no human being could read this leaflet without being interested.” Several prominent business men, who wanted to make a missionary investment that would count, bought hundreds of copies of ‘‘ Confessions of a Busi- ness Man,” by George Innes, and mailed them to suc- cessful business men, many of whom had never had any idea before that really big business men were in- terested in missions. A primary Sunday-school superintendent has a birth- day box into which the children put missionary gifts, MISSIONARY LITERATURE 139 Then she has another birthday box which brings a birthday gift to them. It is a plain pasteboard box, decorated attractively, with cut-out missionary pic- tures. On the inside of the box is a collection of pic- tures and the most interesting stories to be had in leaflet form. The birthday child is allowed to take the box home on Sunday and to keep it for a week. After reading all the stories the one pronounced “ best of all ” is to be kept for a birthday gift and the others returned. New leaflets are constantly added. “ Get into the habit of attaching a missionary leaflet to every gift you make,” said a literature enthusiast. “Tf you are giving a doll to a little girl, tie an attractive missionary story to dolly’s arm. If you send a ball and bat to a boy, see that a rousing story of missionary heroism or a story of some boys of other lands is fastened on to them. Nestled in your bouquet of flow- ers, atop your bowl of fruit, inside the dainty bag,—let there be just the missionary leaflet best suited to reach the person who is to receive the gift. When you get off a train do not be so particular to pick up all your belongings. You might leave a missionary leaflet be- hind. Who knows who will come along and pick it up? Perhaps a John Scudder may chance that way.” A summer conference had adjourned and most of the delegates were ready to start to the trains. A member of the faculty, who was staying over, looked at the de- parting delegates with a sinking heart. “¢ My last chance with them is gone,” she said to her- self. ‘I wonder whether I reached any of them with a message that will abide! ” 140 MISSIONARY METHODS Then she thought of another chance which might be hers. Hurrying to her room she selected a number of leaflets. As she said good-bye she gave each one a leaflet, as a last-chance gift. Had she given them earlier they might have been packed away to be read at the more convenient season which never comes. Now there was no place to put them out of sight, so every leaflet was read soon after the delegates started on their homeward way. At another conference a demonstration was made of the possibility of having a certain leaflet read by every- body on the grounds, within forty-eight hours. Six girls entered a contest to see which could secure the most readers. Each girl was given a cardboard folder attractively decorated on the back. On the inside were blanks for the signatures of the readers secured. Hither and thither the girls went in their search for readers. When the reports were turned in there were more signatures than there were delegates, which, upon investigation, revealed not a stuffed ballot, but an in- terest which extended beyond the delegates to outside guests and to the force employed by the hotel. A beautiful tribute sent to an author was a copy of one of her own leafiets with the autographs of a group of girls who had read it and had been helped by its message. Missionary Travellers Mrs. C. N. McHose, of Lancaster, Pa., has routed and started on their journeyings some interesting mis- sionary travellers. She says: “ For some time we felt that, in our church, too few of MISSIONARY LITERATURE 141 our women had a chance to enjoy the splendid missionary literature which we used in our monthly programs. We, therefore, called for leaflets, magazines and other missionary literature which our active members had on hand. We received enough to prepare sixteen very interesting boxes which we called ‘ Missionary Travellers.’ Four women were chosen to personally conduct the journeyings of these mis- sionary travellers to the homes of shut-ins, of mothers who had small children, and of other women who for various reasons could not or would not come to the regular meetings.” SECOND—-MAGAZINES Ten Things to Do with Missionary Magazines 1. Read them yourself. Even though subscriptions be paid in advance, the unread pages of missionary periodicals explain the ignorance of church folks in regard to the missionary enterprise. 2. Read them aloud to your family and to some of your shut-in neighbors. 3. Pray through them. As you read, turn every recorded blessing into a prayer of thanksgiving. Make every worker mentioned an object of intercession, and every need reported a subject for petition. 4. When you have read them pass them on to some- one else. Constitute yourself a subscription agent and make it your business to secure just as many subscrip- tions as possible to missionary magazines. Some peo- ple subscribe for two copies in order to have one to file and one to lend. 5. Include subscriptions to missionary magazines in the gifts you make. The interest of one of the great missionary leaders of our day began through a sub- scription to The Missionary Review of the World pre- 142 MISSIONARY METHODS sented to him by a friend; the gift was not even welcomed on its first visits and found a straight course to the waste-basket; but read, as the days went by, it brought a great missionary awakening. 6. Have your society make a bridal present of a year’s subscription to a missionary magazine to every bride who comes into the congregation. 7. See that missionary magazines are on the tables at your public libraries, Y. M. C. A., and Y. W. C. A., and other reading rooms. 8. Make a list of the colleges you know and if the leading missionary magazines are not on their reading tables, persuade some interested friends to help you put them there. 9. Investigate the missionary periodical situation in your Sunday-school. See that your denominational magazine and Everyland, that best of all missionary magazines for children, are circulated freely. A girl who is now in New York preparing to sail as a mission- ary to Japan was asked what had been the strongest influence in her missionary determination. “ The pictures and stories in our little Sunday-school missionary paper which was my companion on Sunday afternoons, as I sat in the forked limbs of the old apple tree at home, led me to the foreign field,” was the answer. 10. See that the children’s missionary magazines go to all the orphans’ homes and rescue institutions, of which you know. From out of our orphanages and rescue homes have come some great men and women. Here dwell thousands of missionary opportunities. MISSIONARY LITERATURE 143 THIRD—BOOKS The Missionary Opportunity of the Public Library Said a great missionary publicist, ‘“‘ There are enough missionary people in any city or town to get all the public recognition they want if they make a concerted effort to secure it.” Acting on this suggestion a num- ber of missionary leaders in several cities have con- certed to secure the regular addition of new mis- sionary books to their public libraries. Lists of books in line with the general mission study themes are prepared and requests for them are sent in by a sufficient number of library members to guarantee their addition to the library. On the missionary work- ers of our towns and cities rests the responsibility for seeing that missionary books are placed in our public libraries. Travelling Libraries For the workers who do not have access to public libraries two good plans have been suggested for trav- elling libraries: First. A library of carefully selected, up-to-date volumes purchased by a conference or district organ- ization. This library travels from one society in the district to another, staying with each for two weeks, without any cost to the hostess except express charges to the next point. Second. A library at literature headquarters, the volumes of which are sent out upon request. Such libraries include books of reference, sets of mission study books, biographies, etc. They are mailed to workers who write specifically for special volumes or 144 MISSIONARY METHODS for help along certain lines, and must be returned within a prescribed time limit. Sunday-School Libraries The Sunday-school library presents two missionary problems: How to get missionary books in it and how to get them out of it. The literary trash being circu- lated by Sunday-school libraries, as well as by other libraries, is responsible for many of the false ideas and ideals of life which our boys and girls have. While most libraries have excluded volumes of the cut-throat type, shelf after shelf is given to volumes almost as pernicious in their influence. The impossible hero who runs away from home on Monday, secures a fine posi- tion on Tuesday, is promoted on Wednesday, succeeds the general manager on Thursday, is made a member of the firm on Friday and becomes the president of the company ere sets Saturday’s sun, is not a wholesome companion for the boy who must face the prosaic work of daily lessons to be learned, and regular tasks to be done. On the other hand the splendid heroism of the mission fields with its steady application to the duty at hand, has changed the course of many lives. See that your Sunday-school library introduces your boys and girls to the heroes of missions. Getiing Books Into the Library HOW NOT TO DO IT Make up your library committee of people who have no interest in missions. Encourage such sentiments as ‘“ while the need is so great for mission work the money had better be sent to the field instead of being spent in books.” MISSIONARY LITERATURE 145 In order to save money have an uninstructed book shower, and urge the people just to bring the books they already have on hand and are not using at home. This plan will save money. Also it will secure some beautiful bindings which will look well on the shelves. Also it will unload on your Sunday-school library many books which have languished for readers because of being unreadable. Also it will likely kill your library in time. HOW TO DO IT See that you have at least one missionary advocate on the library committee. Present to your officers the need for the cultivation of the field in order to secure the future harvest. Let it be understood that the library committee se- lects all books and keeps a list of desirable new books to be added. } Appropriate money from the treasury for new books. Secure also special contributions from interested friends if more money is needed. Get each class to donate the price of a new book each year. Present to your mis- sionary organizations the opportunity of the Sunday- school library. How to Get Books Out of the Library 1. Post attractive notices of new books. 2. Devote a few minutes to an interesting review of books recently added. 3. Tell a story or part of a story from a book and suggest that more like it may be found in a certain book, 146 MISSIONARY METHODS 4. Arrange for books to be sent to those who are shut in temporarily or permanently. 5. Outline a reading course for each department. Climbing the Ladder A device for securing systematic reading, step by step, is described as follows by Miss Hutton in her book, The Missionary Education of Juniors. While this plan is especially adapted to Juniors it may be successfully used for older people as well: “‘ A genuine ladder may be used, but it is probably better for the junior boys to make an imitation one of straight pieces of wood, using broomsticks sawed the proper length for the rungs, which should be eight or ten in number. The ladder should be placed conspicuously in the junior room, and each rung should bear a card having plainly printed on it the name of a book. As the pupils read the books, they climb the ladder. If the number of books available is lim- ited, it may be necessary to allow the children to read them in any order, so that all the pupils may have an equal chance; in this case a second card on each rung might be used to record the names of the pupils who have read the book of that rung. The children who complete the list first should have the fact recognized in some simple but public way. To insure against hasty and superficial reading, the pupils may be asked to answer questions, to dramatize a scene, or to relate their favourite incident in the book.” |‘ The Menace, or the Opportunity of the Knitting Needle “ To knit or not to knit ” is not the question. Knit- ting is unquestioned and unquestionable. One enthusi- astic war knitter confessed that she was on her eighth sock with an as yet unrealized hope that she would be able to get two enough alike to do for a pair. Even MISSIONARY LITERATURE 147 though she should have to send the products of her needles to the front for the use of the men who have lost one foot, she still holds her purpose true to con- tinue knitting. The question is, since we are knitting and are going to continue to knit, how can we make the knitting serve a missionary purpose? Here is the op- portunity for the Missionary Reading Circle. Just as often as the knitters can get together, have someone read an interesting missionary book aloud. Do not make your circle large enough to become unwieldy. A few people in the same neighbourhood will make a bet- ter circle than many people scattered over a large ter- ritory.